Editorial: Renew the Collegiate Readership Program

In the age of The Huffington Post, Google News and other aggregate sites, readers have more news… In the age of The Huffington Post, Google News and other aggregate sites, readers have more news sources at their disposal than ever before. But not every media outlet is first-rate, and many students might still prefer reading one or two high-quality newspapers — an opportunity the recently halted Collegiate Readership Program afforded.

As The Pitt News reported last week, our Student Government Board voted unanimously to suspend the Readership Program, which provides non-College of General Studies students with the print and online editions of The New York Times and USA Today. Citing concerns about the general public depleting the papers (with only a warning sign to deter them), Board members say the program will remain in limbo until University architects approve the implementation of new, Pitt ID-reading drop boxes.

Fortunately, SGB President James Landreneau predicted that if Pitt sanctions the installation of these drop boxes, his Board will vote to renew the program. We hope this is true. Though it poses some logistical problems, access to the papers allows students to stay abreast of current events, and to improve their community in the process.

Unlike many SGB initiatives — funding various club sports, for example — granting access to the Times and USA Today benefits almost every undergraduate, including those who aren’t members of student organizations or other extracurriculars. And while the new drop boxes will exclude people who don’t pay the Student Activities Fee, this will hardly render the Program unsuccessful: If merely a small fraction of, say, Pitt’s 11,049 Arts and Sciences students pick up a paper, every drop box will be emptied by day’s end.

Furthermore, many classes require that students regularly read The New York Times or USA Today. Renewing the program will facilitate professors’ lesson plans, and preclude them from asking their students to pay for their own subscriptions.

Even if some students elect not to take advantage of the available papers, they’ll nonetheless engage with a more well-informed community — a community better equipped to contribute to class discussions, debates and other topical conversations.

Renewed access to the physical newspapers is particularly vital. Although anyone can read 20 articles on the Times’ website each month before encountering a paywall, nytimes.com is no substitute for the print edition. To read the Times in print is to immerse yourself in a rich, well-designed document; to browse the paper’s website is to sample a dozen or so articles, videos and graphics, none of which command your full attention.

For the above reasons, we hope University architects will approve installing the new drop boxes — provided that they’re compatible with our ID cards — and that SGB will then vote to renew access to the Times and USA Today. With a few tweaks, the program could go down as one of the most successful and admirable initiatives in SGB’s recent history.