Resignations at The Exchange

Editor-In-Chief and Managing Editor Blame Lack of Funds and Small Staff

Jeffrey Gamss, Co-Editor-in-Chief and Mitchell Rich, Managing Editor, of The Exchange, the official student periodical of the Sy Syms School of Business have both resigned effective as soon as successors for their respective positions can be found. This is the latest development in a string of setbacks that have beleaguered the business publication over the course of this academic year.

Difficulty in obtaining funding for printing expenses and inadequate staff support to sustain regular publication intervals caused the departures according to Gamss. The funding concerns reportedly stem from the past failure of the SSSB Student Council to honor a commitment to cover the cost of Exchange publication.

On February 23, Gamss and Rich both resigned following the publication of the paper's second edition of this year. Gamss who has only served in the top post of The Exchange since January indicated that he no longer had adequate time to address the funding and staffing difficulties that have plagued the publication.

There is no formal publication schedual for the number of editions to be published each semester. However, there had been general agreement, as well as acknowledgement from the editorial staff that they have not published as often as appropiate so far this year. In the recent February 23 issue, Gamss in his column, attributed this deficiency to the difficulty that The Exchange has faced in obtaining the funding, computer equipment, and space necessary to publish regularly. He thanked The Commentator for permitting The Exchange use of its resources but explained that not having the means to prepare the business paper for publication independently has hindered its effort to publish regularly.

Michael Insel, the Editor-in-Chief prior to Oppenheim and Gamss, reportedly told the incoming editors of the arrangement through which SSSBSC was to cover all Exchange publication expenses. However, when the new editors took their posts, they learned that The Exchange had incurred a substantial debt with Richner Publication for services rendered as far back as March 1997.

Simcha Gissinger, President of SSSBSC, claimed that his organization is willing to cover all printing expenses including the outstanding debt on the condition that The Exchange pays what it can from past revenues. This became the tentative agreement between Gissinger and Oppenheim as of February 24. Gissinger noted that the SSSBSC has historically supported the business oriented paper and that it will "continue to work in conjunction with The Exchange and its editors in order to provide for a very qualitative and worhtwhile publication."

Gamss told The Commentator that he has other obligations that predated his editorial service at The Exchange that require his attention. He added that he had intended to be able to add the post of editor-in-chief to his list of responsibilities and had hoped to make a significant contribution to the third year publication which had been in need of new leaders. However, he has found that "with all the problems that I was not informed about, I realized that I did not have the time to successfully serve in the editor-in-chief position."

Oppenheim was optimistic about the future of The Exchange despite the latest setback. He declared that "we already have one issue out this semester and the articles for the next issue have been disbursed and are due back next week. We still have editors ready and committed to edit and we intend to move full speed ahead."