Even for a government that seems like a series of sideshows in search of a plot, Premier Doug Ford’s attacks on campus student organizations has a jump-the-shark feel.

This week, he looped back to a perplexing storyline about how undergrads have been held hostage by “Marxist” student government unions that allegedly impose extortionist fees and levies.

It’s bizarre to watch Ford attempt to convince voters in the People’s Republic of Ontario that he has a mandate to eliminate not just student government, but also the campus newspapers that hold those dues-collecting student groups to account.

As The Varsity, the University of Toronto’s student newspaper, revealed last week, the Tories have now set out the rules that give students the right to opt-out of paying levies for campus clubs and organizations, among them student newspapers.

During last spring’s election, Ford talked frequently about bringing accountability to government and restoring free speech on university campuses. But Ford’s “student choice initiative,” as this policy has been dubbed, may well achieve the opposite.

In fact, it is conceivable that undergrads on some campuses may opt to continue funding student unions while defunding campus media organizations — a result that could allow those organizations to operate with little or no scrutiny.

The notion that a provincial government would have a hand in snuffing out campus journalism is not just ridiculous, but also unprecedented. Even more troubling is the fact that student news organizations are the only media that systematically cover university administrations, faculty and staff unions, and governing councils.

It’s a big file. Ontario spent $6.6 billion on university and college operating costs in fiscal 2017-2018. The post-secondary sector absorbs billions more from tuition and fundraising revenue streams, as well as vast research grants from the federal government. These institutions, moreover, are enormous employers and serve as the stewards of professional education in the province.

Yet the mainstream media’s coverage of this vast and costly sector is slim. Most news organizations have stopped systematically covering university spending and labour relations, except during strikes. Research breakthroughs and large philanthropic gifts generate hits of coverage. In the main, only campus news organizations have the mandate and the contacts to provide thorough coverage, some of which becomes raw material for the daily press.

Case in point: a series of recent investigative stories by Ryerson University’s Eyeopener about thousands of dollars of alleged spending irregularities by members of the student union executive. The Star has picked up the story, reporting last week about the union’s move to approve a forensic audit of $700,000 in spending.

It’s hardly the only such example. The University of Ottawa’s Fulcrum last year broke a story about a fraud probe involving senior student union officials. In 2017, The Varsity dug up the findings of an audit of secret slush fund maintained by the Canadian Federation of Students, a secretive umbrella organization.

It’s also worth noting that campuses such as York University are as large — in population terms — as small- to mid-sized cities. They experience crime and addiction-related crises and contend with controversies over development and investment plans. Such topics are only grist for campus media, yet find audiences among the students and faculty.

With a few universities, independent student news organizations have sought to offer alternatives to fee-financed campus papers. But given the precipitous decline in ad revenue, it seems unlikely that privately run campus media can fill the void left when student newspapers lose their levy funding.

It’s possible that university administrators will step in to fill the funding breach. But the arrangement is less than ideal. After all, student journalists covering university presidents, governing councils or influential deans may wonder if hard-hitting coverage will jeopardize their funding.

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Ford’s strange digression through the world of campus organizations may produce less light where more is required or create a scenario in which student journalists are subtly discouraged from doing precisely what the premier claims to want, which is holding expensive public institutions to account.

Then again, for a government that launched a fake news channel to broadcast propaganda about itself, maybe this big campus chill is precisely the desired result.

Urban affairs journalist John Lorinc is a senior editor of Spacing and a former Varsity staff reporter (1984-1987).

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