It’s a small thing, and it is a very confusing situation, but your summary of the relationship of the Faculty Senate’s vote and the administration is not quite accurate.

The administration has argued inconsistently for independence at some point, but has put forward interim plans that place the newspaper under direct administration control (”Lahey’s Chronicle”). The university senate voted to maintain the status quo ante, in which students had editorial control of the paper and the editor-in-chief assembled his or her editorial board and made editorial decisions.

It’s going to be a very difficult start for the new venture, and it’s unfortunate that the university was not able to provide better support for these students. It seems unlikely, for example, that they will have the financial resources to make the transition from web to paper, and newsprint-on-paper still thrives on a college campus. Of course, when it comes down to choosing to read the long-standing Chronicle, now under fairly direct editorial control of an administration that is very press-conscious, or an independent paper published by our best journalism students, the choice is clear for me. I just hope the same is true of the student body.