Undergraduate WSU students approved a referendum to increase fees in order to help fund the Office of Student Media, which houses The Daily Evergreen, the Chinook yearbook and the Visitors Magazine.

The ballot measure passed with 50.8 percent of the vote, with 78 students tipping the scale.

Undergraduate students will now pay $5 in the fall and spring semesters to help fund Student Media. Had the referendum failed, The Daily Evergreen would have reduced print production to four days a week.

“I’m so happy that it passed,” Editor-in-Chief Madison Jackson said.

Graduate and professional students still have until 5 p.m. Thursday to cast their votes on the $5 fee increase.

Other sources of revenue Student Media has considered are a faculty and alumni subscription service, a newsletter.

“The newsroom has never been stagnant,” she said.

The Student Media Board voted to cut Summer Evergreen print entirely if the referendum did not pass. With the fee, the summer paper will continue to print.

Jackson said this journey has been crazy and emotional, but she is grateful she was not going through it alone. She said Gabriella Ramos, Student Media outreach coordinator, has helped take care of the campaign while Jackson has helped out in the newsroom.  The Student Media marketing department has also been helpful, she said.

Ramos said she hopes that after a few years the paper will be able to backfill its reserves, get new equipment and improve operations. For the immediate future, she said, the focus will be on completing another year of the paper, hiring more students and serving the public.

“I’m just super proud of us,” Ramos said.

TEVA MAYER | The Daily Evergreen