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For the young journalists who work at Western University’s student newspaper, it’s like waiting for a punch in the gut.

“It’s been on my mind constantly,” said the The Gazette’s editor-in-chief, Martin Allen, 22.

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Come the new school year in September, Allen and his staff will find out what students have decided under a new system begun by Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives that allows post-secondary students to opt out of paying for things like campus clubs and services they’ve helped pay for until now through mandatory fees charged in addition to their tuition.

Campus media – which at Western includes the newspaper and a radio station – are among the services affected by the new system that begins this fall.

“The explanation given for this is the money will be spent better” by students themselves, Allen said. “This is like a direct referendum every single year.”

The amount — a bit less than $20 from each undergraduate student – may not seem like much, but this summer Allen finds himself contemplating a future in which as few as 10 per cent of undergrads decide they want to support The Gazette, which has been the voice of students and a training ground for future professional journalists since 1906.