Silver & Gold's Last Record
Andi Fabri
After serving as CU鈥檚 faculty and staff weekly newspaper for almost 40 years, it fell victim to budget cuts. Faced with a $6.2 million shortfall, President Bruce Benson (Geol鈥64, HonDocSci鈥04) shut down the paper, which cost $600,000 annually to produce. He said it was a hard decision but noted CU is the only university among its peers that financially supports a newspaper operation.
The paper鈥檚 editorial staff tackled controversial issues, published guest editorials, posted job announcements and wrote obits about longtime employees.
Many faculty members and staff opposed the closing of the paper, as did its 15-member editorial board. Former editor Susan Barney Jones (MJour鈥84) told the Coloradan that 鈥渢he move to eliminate [the paper] was about the administration not liking the paper鈥檚 independent voice more than it was about budget.鈥
A new online paper, Faculty and Staff Newsletter, has replaced it at with a $100,000 budget from the CU system.