Fulcrum (newspaper)

In 1942, The University of Ottawa's English Debating Society published the inaugural edition of their newsletter, entitled The Fulcrum. The newsletter was supervised by Rev. Lorenzo Danis, OMI, and its first editor-in-chief was John Beahen. The premiere edition included as its mission statement the following: "The Fulcrum is dedicated entirely to the interests of our students of today and yesterday."

In its first year, The Fulcrum was funded almost entirely by alumni donations and published only 8 issues per year. Due to its conservative Catholic editorial policies, The Fulcrum was fairly non-controversial compared to its more outspoken counterpart, La Rotonde. The inclusion of advertising starting in its second year allowed the paper some slight financial freedom and The Fulcrum continued in this manner until 1946, when it came under the supervision of the English Students' Association and the SFUO. In 1947, The Fulcrum became a member of the Canadian University Press, a national cooperative linking student newspapers across Canada.[4]

In 1951, the SFUO (suffering from serious financial problems) proposed that The Fulcrum and La Rotonde be combined into one publication and renamed The Ottawa. The proposal was rejected, but operations at the two papers were condensed into one workspace in the house the SFUO occupied at the time.

Throughout the 1950s, La Rotonde and the University of Ottawa administration had a combative relationship, inciting the Canadian University Press to label La Rotonde as "the most censored student newspaper in Canada" in 1956. The ill-will between the two groups reached a climax in 1958, when three editors from La Rotonde were expelled for an article criticizing Queen Elizabeth II. La Rotonde ceased publishing after this and was not re-formed again until January 1959. Despite the atmosphere on campus, The Fulcrum continued to publish during this time.

Both The Fulcrum and La Rotonde continued to publish unabated throughout most of the 1960s, with La Rotonde continuing with its outspoken approach, and The Fulcrum often playing the mediator and aiming criticism at both parties. However, this began to change in 1964, when the University of Ottawa administration censored an article in La Rotonde espousing the opinion that Queen Elizabeth II was not welcome in Quebec. The Fulcrum spoke out on the issue and in an editorial at the time stated that: "We feel that the administration should have given the publishers of La Rotonde a chance to act. The publishers (the Students' Union) are the ones who should have the right to confiscate an issue of a student newspaper, or any part thereof". Following from this, The Fulcrum became a more outspoken voice on campus.

In 1969, both publications were canceled and replaced with a bilingual monthly entitled Id, directed by Ian Green. The official reason for the cancellation of The Fulcrum and La Rotonde and the subsequent launch of Id was a lack of student interest in both newspapers; however, it was during this time that Canada was enveloped in the polarizing events of the October crisis, and many attribute the climate on campus and cancellation of the opposing-language newspapers to these events.

In 1970, both newspapers were re-instated and continued to publish regularly as services of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (which incorporated in 1969). The next three decades were quieter and both newspapers were able to achieve a stability on campus, buoyed by the receipt of a guaranteed student levy voted on in a referendum by U of O students.

The relationship between the university administration and both newspapers gradually became more distant during this time, and (as the publisher of both papers) the SFUO began to step in to moderate and control content when the SFUO felt it was needed. However, the ability of the SFUO to pull any content they deemed questionable quickly lead to dissent on the part of both newspapers and questions of censorship arose. The SFUO stepped in several times during these decades to censor issues that were objectionable or could have been construed as libel, much to the chagrin of editors at both papers. Fueled by their lack of control over their publication and an increasing move towards autonomy in student newspapers across the country, editors at The Fulcrum began formulating plans to go "autonomous" as early as 1998, but many stalled attempts meant that they were not successful until many years later.

It was during this time that The Fulcrum moved to offices located between University of Ottawa's Thompson Residence and Morriset Library (later occupied by CHUO-FM, and now known as the Déjà Vu lounge). In 1989, The Fulcrum was relocated to the basement of 631 King Edward Ave. across from the main campus in a University of Ottawa building.

The Fulcrum's official logo, 2010-2014

In 1999, after several years of a rocky relationship with the Ottawa Gaming Club (who occupied the first floor of 631 King Edward Ave.) The Fulcrum was granted the first and second floor of the building as their new offices. It was also in 1999 that "The Fulcrum" began to make more use of digital technology, switching from more traditional layout techniques to computer layout, and switching over to digital photography, beginning with digital contributions by Steven Meece.

Beginning in the 2003-2004 school year, the paper began referring to itself as University of Ottawa's Fulcrum, rather than The Fulcrum, on the cover.

In the summer of 2004, recently elected Editor-in-Chief Mary Cummins and Managing Editor Marcus McCann once again looked into plans to become an autonomously incorporated organization. This push was spurred on by the SFUO attempting to pull the Summer 2004 issue of the Fulcrum for featuring a mug of beer and using the term "Frosh" (the SFUO had recently stopped using the term frosh in favour of welcome week and later 101 week due to negative connotations associated with the term). Aside from this, the separation was due to several reasons. The main reason being that the editorial board felt it was an inherent conflict of interest to be owned by the student government while attempting to write fair, unbiased, and often critical stories about them. The secondary reason was that as an autonomous corporation, the Fulcrum was able to directly control its own finances and spur further growth of the paper.

After discussing the situation with then-president of the SFUO Philippe Laliberté, plans were made to begin the process. In October 2004, a letters patent was granted to "The Fulcrum Publishing Society", the corporation that would take over the governance of the Fulcrum, and negotiations between the SFUO and the Fulcrum continued throughout the year. After approval by the SFUO's Board of Administration, ownership of the Fulcrum officially transferred to The Fulcrum Publishing Society on June 1, 2005.

The Fulcrum Publishing society was set up to be governed by a ten-member Board of Directors made up of students, community members, Fulcrum staff, U of O faculty, and Fulcrum alumni. Ultimate responsibility for the governance and management of the Corporation was left with the board while the president, who acted as the Business Manager, made decisions on a day-to-day basis. To avoid a similar conflict of interest, provisions were put into the corporate bylaws prohibiting the board from interfering in editorial content unless faced with possible legal action.

After a turbulent first year, the Fulcrum settled into a financially stable position as an autonomous corporation.

Recent changes to the governance structures of the Corporation have led to slight changes, such as the Business (now General) Manager no longer being permitted to hold a seat on the Board, and the roles of the Corporation's executives being clarified.

In 2014-15, the newspaper received a complete visual redesign including a new layout and logo.

• List of student newspapers in Canada
• List of newspapers in Canada

• Official website
• The Fulcrum on Twitter
• The Fulcrum on YouTube