The Beacon feels that there should be fundamental changes to The New York Times Readership program; it is a service that not all students benefit from but that all students pay for.
The New York Times Readership Program provides 625 copies of the newspaper to the University from Monday to Friday—450 issues to the Modesto Maidique Campus at the Graham Center and the Green Library, and 175 issues are distributed to the Biscayne Bay Campus at the Wolfe University Center, Glenn Hubert Library, and Academic Buildings One and Two. There are 45,000 students enrolled at the University. Clearly, the numbers do not add up. This number does not take into account the number of professors and faculty members that also read the paper.
Having students pay fees for papers that are available for anyone essentially has students footing the bill for a resource that is not allocated just for students. This is unfair and shows a disregard for students’ finances.
It should also be noted that commuter students as well as online students who never step foot on campus, a demographic University President Mark Rosenberg hopes to continue to expand, pay for this service and do not reap any of the benefits.
The Beacon recognizes the convenience of a print copy of the The New York Times but this accommodation is not a “free” service. The service costs $14,000 and is collected from students’ activities and service fees. The Beacon believes that this allocation of money is wasteful especially because the the library offers a daily print copy for reference.
Furthermore, additional student fees used towards library resources allow access to present archives of the The New York Times. The fact that we pay twice, once for a hard copy that is often difficult to obtain and twice for archives is redundant and wasteful. The archives are a great resource for past papers and present articles, but you have to know what you are searching for. It is difficult to navigate through the site. Unlike a daily newspaper, the archives are not user friendly.
If the Student Government Association is serious about increasing daily student readership of The New York Times, they should allocate funds for an individual student online subscription. This would allow unlimited access for all types of students and excludes campus visitors, staff, and faculty—who do not pay for this service.
When budget deliberations come around again at the end of the Spring semester, the University-wide Council, which distributes student money, should overhaul this entire program. If the council chooses to fund it again, it should be for an online subscription for students only, not for paper copies that are available for anyone to grab while students pick up the check.
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