SGB halts the Collegiate Readership Program

Students can expect to see empty spaces where they once picked up their copies of The New York… Students can expect to see empty spaces where they once picked up their copies of The New York Times and USA Today.

The new Student Government Board President James Landreneau, along with an agreement from SGB advisor Kenyon Bonner and a unanimous vote from the incoming Board, has decided to halt the distribution of the two newspapers through the Collegiate Readership Program until locked drop boxes are brought to campus.

Landreneau said that he will meet with Bonner, Pitt’s director of Student Life, during the first week of January to discuss the implementation of the drop boxes, but as of now, he did not know when the boxes and newspapers would return to campus.  

The newspaper pilot program began last spring semester. The campus-wide subscriptions cost non-College of General Studies students a yearly $30,500, which came out of the Student Activities Fund. However, the Board ran into difficulties in barring other students, faculty and Pittsburgh residents from picking up the papers.

The only thing keeping the public from picking up the newspapers this past year was a paper stop sign taped on all seven stands. The papers informed passers-by that the newspapers were for undergraduate students only but did not specify that the newspapers were only for non-College of General Studies students.

Unlimited access has been an ongoing issue for the Student Government Board.

Former SGB president Molly Stieber acknowledged the problematic part of the program and spoke in support of installing boxes for the newspapers.

The proposed drop boxes would limit the papers to only the students who pay the $80-per-semester Student Activities Fee through an ID-swipe system. But as of now, Landreneau said that the University does not have approval for the drop boxes and doesn’t know if Pitt IDs are compatible with the drop boxes.

“The way I see it, if [the program] continues down the path as it has this year, it’s going to be unsuccessful,” Landreneau said. “I don’t want to waste any of the Student Activities Fee foolishly.”

Incoming Board member Julie Hallinan said that, according to a representative from The New York Times, 99 percent of the newspapers have been picked up during the pilot year of the program. She said that she herself picks up The New York Times multiple times during the week.

“I think it is worthwhile and definitely something we should continue to have on campus,” she said. But she also added, “We don’t want to use the activities fee to fund for something that everyone could use.”

Halim Genus, another incoming Board member, also had concerns about continuing the Collegiate Readership Program. “Before we go and spend this money again, we need to talk to students,” he said. “Is [the program]

something the Student Activities Fee should pay for?”

Genus said that the Board needs to discuss “whether or not [newspapers are] philosophically something the Board should fund for.”

Landreneau said that the 2012 Board will speak with other schools in Pitt, such as the College of General Studies and the graduate schools, and ask if they are interested in also providing funding for the Collegiate Readership Program.