UC San Diego students have voted to pay a $3.50 quarterly fee to subsidize The Guardian, a nearly 60-year-old campus newspaper that was on the verge of closing its print edition due to money problems. Nearly 6,100 of the 8,259 students who participated in this week’s spring student elections said yes to the fee, which will go into effect during the fall quarter. Like many newspapers, The Guardian has lost most of its print advertising money as readers shifted online. The university’s only independent student paper also has been dealing with other financial pressures that threatened both its print and digital editions. “This fee won’t just sustain The Guardian, it will allow us to grow in ways we’ve never even thought were possible,” Adalia Luo, the paper’s editor, told the San Diego Union-Tribune on Saturday. “It’s so special to see that the student body stands with us and recognizes the importance of protecting free student press.” ...read more read less