The Carolinian

e mandate of then USC administrators namely University President Fr. Ernesto Lagura, SVD. The Carolinian traces its roots to El Estudiante which first published in 1932. Some few years later, the publication was named The Carolinian with Fulvio Pelaez, a former dean of USC College of Law, as first editor-in-chief. During the Martial Law regime, operations of all student publications in the country were halted. In 1983, the student publication of USC went back in circulation under the name Today's Carolinian, following the establishment of the Supreme Student Council two years back. The former chairman of the USC Sociology and Anthropology department Jose Eleazar Bersales became the editor-in-chief of what was often called "an activist paper". However, in early 2004, the school administration led by then President Fr. Roderick Salazar, SVD stopped collecting fees for Today's Carolinian, owing to accounting and content-related reasons. In 1991-1992, Today's Carolinian's editorial board under the leadership of Ma. Cristina Calzo was linked to a case of embezzlement of the publication's funds. Years before its eventual closure, Today's Carolinian included obscene articles and images in their issues that, according to critics, seemed to question authority figures and God and thus unbecoming for a professional student paper of a Catholic university. This led to the closure of Today's Carolinian and therefore caused the seven-year vacuum in USC's student publication from 2004 to 2011. With its reestablishment in 2011, The Carolinian is now considered as USC's new official student publication as evidenced by a letter dated July 18, 2011, duly signed by USC Vice President for Administration Fr. Eleno P. Bucia, SVD. John Destacamento was the first editor-in-chief of the present day version of The Carolinian. The expenses incurred by The Carolinian have been mainly shouldered by the USC administration and no specific fee has been reflected on the students' assessments for its operations. By letting the administration, instead of the student body, fund the paper, The Carolinian becomes accountable to the USC administration only in so far as accounting and auditing works are concerned, and this explains why there has been no showing of any bookkeeping records in any of the issues released by The Carolinian. From 2011 to date, The Carolinian has circulated over 35,000 copies in six major issues which come out in magazine and newspaper formats, and for the first time in the history of USC student publication, it has released its first-ever literary folio called "Katitikan" in June 2012. Since it was not reconstituted through the efforts of the Supreme Student Council, which is highly made up of political party affiliated members, The Carolinian stands with a reputation of being a largely nonpartisan and independent student publication. Fondly called The C, The Carolinian goes with the slogan "Official. Nonpartisan. Since 1932." After the release of The Carolinian's maiden issue in August 2011, reports surfaced that then SSC President Frances Jan Villarino made efforts to yet revive Today's Carolinian, despite the fact that she knew The Carolinian was already operating as the new paper. Raising concerns on the legality of the existence of The Carolinian, the SSC President from STAND Party questioned The Carolinian's independence. In defense, The Carolinian has been asserting that the Office of Student Affairs does not in any way meddle with the publication affairs and that the editorial board has been working with utmost independence with no censorship from any party. In spite of this, the SSC went on to revive Today's Carolinian, apparently making students to pay P12.50 without going through a comprehensive consultation process with the student body; hence, the existence of two papers in the campus.