This week I quickly cobbled together an article about the UMass Board of Trustees and Billy Bulger. The Board of Trustees, technically, supervises the University President, though not many feel that board actually exerts any power upon Bulger. Whatever…

Anyway, I figured this would be an opportune moment to give our faithful readers a brief on The Mass Media’s governing structure.

First off, we have a constitution that supposedly is our governing document. I say supposedly not because we don’t follow it, but because other entities trample all over it. The constitution is supposed to ensure our independence but, like the U.S. deciding who should be president of Iraq, it doesn’t really matter as long as 800-pound gorillas come along and tell us what we are going to do.

Our constitution outlines the eleven officers of the newspaper, nine of whom sit on the editorial board, the governing body of the newspaper.

Article IV: Officers The officers of The Mass Media shall consist of the following eleven officers: the Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, News Editor, Opinion Page Editor, Arts & Features Editor, Sports Editor, Photography Editor, Production Manager, Copy Editor, Business Manager, and Advertising Manager.

The Business Manager and Advertising Manager are not members of the Editorial Board, since they are not involved in content decisions, and they are hired.

The rest of the board is comprised of elected members and each serve a one-year term. At the end of every year the Editorial Board elects the editors for the following year.

In this manner the newspaper has been self-governing and self-sustaining for 37 years without outside interference, except for the occasional lockout by the administration…occasionally requiring court intervention.

The Ed Board, as we affectionately call ourselves, meets every Wednesday at 5:00pm in room M-1-627. We discuss content, finances and politics. Stop on by.

The Ed Board has ultimate authority over the newspaper except, as I said, when an 800-pound gorilla called UMB steps in and pulls some purse strings, changes locks or otherwise tampers with the inner workings of what, in theory, should be an independent newspaper–run by UMB students, for UMB students.

My primary job, as it turns out in reality, is protecting The Mass Media from the 800-pound gorilla called UMB. Now, I only weigh about 160-pounds, so you can imagine what a monumental task that is–luckily I’m an old street-fighter, and, recently, I’ve had the good sense to expend a little of our funds on hiring a law firm: Prince, Lobel, Glovsky & Tye LLP.

I think this may be the best thing I’ve ever done for this newspaper, ’cause these guys are good. Check out a line from their PR material: Counsels and litigates on behalf of print, broadcast, and online media. Clients have included local and national newspapers; regional and national magazines; book authors and publishers; Internet reporters, publishers, and websites; broadcasters; cable television provider and public access channels; documentary filmmaker; and numerous college newspapers.

Specific clients? New York Times, Boston Globe, ABC, CBS, NBC, Bloomberg, Dow Jones, Newscorp, Ziff Davis–and now, The Mass Media.

Man, it feels great to have an 800-pound gorilla on our side.

Oh yes, change is definitely in the air.