Editorial: SBG should vote to bring back newspapers ASAP

When it comes to information, we think sooner is better than later. When it comes to information, we think sooner is better than later.

As we’ve reported earlier, the Student Government Board suspended and then voted to reinstate the Collegiate Readership Program, which offers 300 paper copies of both The New York Times and USA Today on campus to students who pay the $80 Student Activity Fee each term.

Although students still have access to the online replica editions, the papers were phased out over winter break after the Board decided it was unfair for the papers — 99 percent of which were picked up last year — to sit out unprotected from those awful professors and College of General Studies students.

In March, it will install drop boxes that are included in the cost of the program, and Pitt will install card readers into the boxes to allow access to only the students who have paid for the service.

Tonight SGB will vote on whether to bring back the papers immediately or wait until the drop boxes are installed.

For the sake of education, we hope the Board votes to bring back the papers as soon as possible.

An antithetical viewpoint could say that the Board only pays for the newspapers that are picked up. Thus, those who don’t pay the Student Activity Fee are costing the student body precious money every time they pick up a paper.

But by that logic, SGB should restrict admittance and membership for every activity it funds.

And considering the ratio for newspaper picker-uppers is probably somewhere around 250 fee-payers to 50 non-payers, what’s the real harm? It’s nothing that getting to the papers earlier couldn’t fix.

And it’s something that the drop boxes won’t necessarily fix, either. There’s virtually no way to dictate what someone does with the paper he picks up. He could leave it on the bus or get it from a friend if he wanted to.

And some might argue that the $30,500 or so that goes into the program each year is too much money to spend on just a select fraction of students.

Considering the 700 students who signed up for the online editions of the papers and the option to have guest speakers from the papers come here, the program benefits, say, an estimated 1,000 students.

Out of the 16,500 or so students who pay the Activities Fee, that figure might not seem like a lot. But when you consider what SGB allocates funds to — like clubs and sports that only a select few can enjoy — having these newspapers available would be the greatest victory for the average student in recent Board decisions.

The point is, eliminating that easy access for students does nothing but stall a wealth of information. The news doesn’t stop, so why wait until March to bring it back to us?

Honestly, we have bigger problems to worry about than professors reading a couple of free papers.

Considering Pitt’s dismal percentage of student voters, it’s irresponsible to keep the newspapers away — especially when we should be stapling them to the students’ foreheads.

This community would benefit from more readily available information, not less. In fact, it needs it.

SGB, vote “yes” tonight.