Photo by Tyler Hersko / Nevada Sagebrush

By Nick Rattigan

During my first semester at the University of Nevada, Reno I was a loser. I failed to connect with my fellow peers who assembled their boxes of Keystone Lights on Friday nights to voyage across the Sierra Street crosswalk into the greater unknown of house parties and Greek gatherings. While I tried to assimilate myself into the world of football games and Spaghetti Nights, I never seemed to fit in.

Instead, I spent most of the day binge-watching Netflix and attempting to record music in my dorm bathroom in the sparse moments while my roommates went to the gym. It was miserable.

Whether it was through fate or divine intervention, I was introduced to Wolf Pack Radio. Suddenly, I was surrounded by people with whom I could discuss the new Animal Collective album, the importance of Bradford Cox and how when rappers take acid, you get some interesting results. Through the station’s goals to play local music, I was introduced to The Holland Project and amazing local acts like Spitting Image and Franc Friday.

I began to work with other student-run publications like the Brushfire and Insight Magazine who were exposing the artistic merits of Northern Nevada. Brushfire enhances the campus through the world of art and poetry, and Insight through articles about the various cultural elements of UNR.

For a majority of the campus, these things will seem arbitrary because they do not appeal to a wide audience, but here lies the importance of a counter culture. It is a culture that is not accepted by everyone and never will be. But just because something doesn’t appeal on a massive scale, doesn’t mean that it is not important.

The purpose of a university is to open the minds of the student body through diverse educational experiences. This is why, as painful as it is, engineers have to take three semesters of Core Humanities, and English majors have to take a rudimentary math class or two. Although the university is trying to incorporate a well-rounded education, these classes are highly criticized by students.

This problem translates to the relationship between ASUN and the publications. The publications, with the exception of The Nevada Sagebrush, are funded by ASUN, whose missions are to appeal to a large student body. Because of the conflicting ideologies of ASUN, who want to represent an entire student body, and those of, say, a college radio station, who want to create a counter culture, we are faced with plenty of scrutiny and endless amounts of bullshit.

Last year, the publications were handed our proposed budgets by then-ASUN president Ziad Rashdan to see our funding was cut. If you dig into our history a bit, these cuts are not an uncommon theme. While Wolf Pack Radio and Insight’s budgets were reduced by half the amount, the Brushfire, a literary journal that has been part of the University for over 50 years, was cut to a resounding zero dollars. The very same day that we fought our seemingly endless battle against ASUN for funding, we put on our annual AMPS (Art, Music, and Poetry) event.

AMPS is an event which celebrates local art, music and poetry on campus, and has been put on by Wolf Pack Radio for the past several years. While the event was originally created by the station, in recent years we have worked to involve other publications in the festivities. The event proudly displays the local artistic community in Reno to the campus and recognizes a need for this type of counter culture. A year ago, while the heads of the publications sweat it out in conference rooms at the top of the Joe Crowley Student Union to keep our funding, students gathered outside in the Davidson Math and Science building at south end of campus to support local art music and culture.

Although we survived the last round of budget cuts, every year there is a new president and a new vision, which may not have us in mind.

Tomorrow night we will be celebrating our AMPS event again at 7p.m. in the rotunda of the Knowledge Center, with performances from local musicians and poets, as well as the release of the latest Brushfire. With a new ASUN president elected and another budget proposal for the next fiscal year to be revealed any day now, we are all uncertain about the future of these publications.

In the face of another possibility of publication extinction, it is important to recognize these local artists, musicians and poets who bring the campus a diverse cultural experience and alternative outlets to Greek life, student government or recreational sports.

Nick Rattigan is the station manager of Wolf Pack Radio. He can be reached at thersko@sagebrush.unr.edu.