University publications with an aim toward specific minority groups have given minority students a forum within the University community for years. Several of these publications have gained momentum and popularity as the University has continued to expand and grow.
With numerous publications to choose from, the University student is given access to opinions, art, literature, news and more from multiple viewpoints.
Iris Magazine
Iris's website defines its core values as "increasing women's agency, and the expansion of knowledge that leads to the understanding and transformation of self, community, and the world."
A women's magazine published twice a year by the University's Women's Center, Iris celebrated its 25th anniversary last spring. The staff increased student involvement with the publication in 1998, when student interns began to work for Iris under the Studies of Women and Gender department at the University. Students currently enrolled in SWAG 310 and 311 work closely with the publication.
Helen Jubran, a third-year College student who took SWAG 311 in the spring of 2005, said she "really enjoyed" the collaboration between the SWAG department and Iris Magazine.
Coordinating Editor Annie Schutte explained the relationship further.
"There's an academic side of class and then there's a magazine side of class," Schutte said. "There's a variety of content [presented to the students in class]. The last part of the class is probably spent talking about the magazine, coming up with ideas about articles, deciding if that should be the cover."
Assignments in class offer undergraduate students an opportunity to be published within the magazine.
At the beginning of the semester students write a short article for the upcoming semester and then their main assignment is to write a feature-length article for the next semester, Schutte said.
This type of exposure can be a significant opportunity for a University student, as Iris is a national magazine with a circulation of two thousand, Schutte said.
Despite these circulation numbers, Iris still strives to increase recognition in the University and Charlottesville community. Jubran described facing this challenge with last semester's issue.
"Part of our challenge was getting our name and being recognized in the community because, surprisingly, a fair amount of people hadn't heard of it." Jubran said.
Despite this challenge, Jubran remained optimistic about Iris's future.
"I think we were pretty successful that semester at getting our name out and establishing ourselves as a voice for feminist women," Jubran said.
Shutte explained Iris's vision for the future.
"Right now our goals are to continue expanding the magazine," Shutte said. "Our goals are just to be an intelligent source of information for feminists of the college-aged demographic -- just to be a publication of interest to college-aged feminists."
PRIDE Magazine
Director of Publications and second-year College student Stephanie Monique Henderson described the focus of PRIDE Magazine, a publication of the Black Student Alliance, as a publication to "get the essence of the black community -- to put black expression, awareness, education and talent within the physical and practical form."
Henderson further explained that the magazine is produced "not only as a celebration of the black community on Grounds but to show how black students are leaders on Grounds ... how we're claiming this University as our own through all different aspects."
PRIDE is retaining this focus after being out of publication for much of the last year.
"We call it a cultural magazine now," Henderson said. "It's also a bigger magazine ... it's in full color now."
Henderson explained that the magazine now includes news features, sports, opinion, fashion and beauty and "a section we call 'expression' -- full of prose and drawings."
The magazine is run by a staff of only 22 University students. Financial help from organizations both inside and outside of the University community has helped these students maintain the publication.
"The majority of our finances are coming from the Parents Program," Henderson said, mentioning that they also get money from the Vice President of Student Affairs.
Henderson added that the magazine is partially funded by Student Council.
"The University is very much in support of it," she said.
According to Henderson, the circulation for the latest issue was set at 1,000 and the staff hopes to gain additional readership through a new, online form of the magazine.
"We're revealing the magazine as an Internet form in the spring with discussion about issues on Grounds," Henderson said. "We hope that the PRIDE online becomes an easy form for people to talk. We want this to become one of the most prominent minority publications at the University. We want it to become autonomous and to be able to run on its own and get national recognition."
Henderson said the magazine's minority focus was less of an obstacle than starting anew.
"I don't think we have any issues because we're a minority magazine but because we are a new magazine," she said.
Henderson remained optimistic about broadening the audience of PRIDE while maintaining its focus as a voice for the black community.
Inkstone Magazine
Fourth-year Commerce student Liz Chiu, advisor for Inkstone magazine, described the publication's focus as "explaining peoples' views on Asian-American culture and identity."
With a staff of approximately 20 University students, Inkstone produces a publication that comes out once a year in the spring, ranging between 44 to 46 pages.
Inkstone describes itself on its website as a magazine that "contains submissions of artistic and literary works, as well as articles on various Asian-American-related issues."
Inkstone takes submissions from University students for publication in the magazine. With a circulation of 2,200, publication in Inkstone can bring significant recognition to an average student.
However, Chiu voiced concerns about the position of Inkstone as a minority publication.
"We, as an Asian organization, are concerned about the fact that these publications can be viewed as exclusive," Chiu said. "It's something that we're constantly trying to define and express. I think, really, the first step is the group has to have a really good handle on what their focus is because it's really easy to make this exclusive."
Chiu said she knows many students have the misperception that only Asian-Americans can contribute to the publication or that Asian-Americans have to write on certain topics.
"Inkstone has taken the approach that we encourage works that incline towards an Asian-American theme, but it's not a requirement to get published, and we're always trying to show how broad that theme is," Chiu said.
Third-year College student Hongfei (Fei) Yang, one of two Editors in Chief for the publication, expanded upon this problem as well.
"The general theme is Asian-American culture, but we don't want to limit that ... especially considering a lot of Asian-Americans come from a diverse background," Yang said. "I think this is an issue that is hard to address ... we encourage as much as we can for everyone to submit."
Sometimes those who submit to Inkstone are members of the staff as well. Yang contributed a point-counterpoint issue on the new Asian American minor shortly after it was introduced at the University. She spoke about the differences between her role as a writer and leader on Inkstone.
"As a writer, the focus is upon being creative and researching and providing good points and counterpoints," Yang said. "As a leader, it's more about fulfilling your responsibilities."
Inkstone continues to take submissions from their own student leaders and students at the University to compile their literary and art publication.
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