The Newspaper Readership Program, which provided issues of The New York Times at various locations on Grounds, ended last May, but student leadership is considering bringing it back after receiving some negative feedback. Whether it is worth the money, however, is debatable.
The joint venture between Student Council and the Arts & Sciences Council cost $24,000 in student activities fees annually. Student Council President Colin Hood said the program was a major burden on Council's budget. The program, which began in fall 2008, cost Student Council the equivalent of about three to four times the budget of one of its individual committees. Because Council has faced significant budget cuts during the past two years, the money may be better spent on other initiatives that do more to impact the daily lives of students. Certainly, there is not a lack of free news outlets.
The program fell short of its initial intentions. The New York Times package included an agreement to host free conferences and guest speakers on Grounds, but these plans never came to fruition - neither did plans to expand the program to the Law, Medical and other schools at the University. Steven Reilly, former chairman of the representative body, said the logistics and availability of speakers made planning conferences difficult. He emphasized, however, that the councils intended to expand the program slowly to ensure its longevity. Reilly is confident, though, that the program would have fulfilled its original goals if it had continued.
Although this program was well-intentioned, it was hampered from the onset because of limited scope. First off, the 450 issues distributed Monday through Thursday and the 250 issues on Friday reached only a small percentage of students on Grounds. Additionally, the locations chosen were for the most part College-centric, including Central Grounds spots such as Newcomb and New Cabell Halls. Given that Student Council funded half the project and ostensibly represents all students, both graduate and undergraduate, papers should have been more evenly placed across Grounds.
Even if the program does not return, students can access current articles from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among other periodicals, through the University's Factiva subscription. Also, The Washington Post may not have a college readership program comparable to The New York Times, but it is available online for free.
Although, Factiva is free for University students, it has drawbacks. For example, students can read the text of all articles in full, but there are no accompanying photographs or other visual features. This may be useful for research, but the interface is not appealing for regular personal reading or browsing. Moreover, the numerous steps involved to access this resource are time-consuming and cumbersome.
Now that the program has been cut from the councils' annual budgets, it would be difficult to make room for the initiative at this point in the year. But there may still be a market for the program when The New York Times begins charging for online access in December. At that point, the councils can consider funding online subscriptions for students or look into alternatives like purchasing online access to The Wall Street Journal. At the very least, the two councils could work together to help publicize the Factiva option.
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