Unfortunately, a lot of liberals at Wesleyan couldn’t handle a little criticism. They circulated a petition asking the student government—the Wesleyan Student Assembly—to “revoke” The Argus’s funding until their demands were met. Said demands included mandatory diversity training for Argus staff, work-study positions to increase minority employment at The Argus, and a dedicated space in the paper for minority voices.

Some 170 members of the Wesleyan community signed the petition.

WSA leaders took note. On October 4th, Assemblyman Alexander Garcia introduced a resolution (PDF) responsive to the demands. The proposal would cut The Argus’s print budget from $30,000 to $13,000 in order to pay for work-study positions at minority campus publications that print less frequently. It was approved last week by a vote of 27-0, though the final details won’t be hammered out until some indeterminate point in the future.

WSA’s members won’t concede that The Argus is being punished for occasionally humoring a conservative perspective.