The program to bring back the free distribution of The New York Times on campus is expected to go into effect as early as next week.
ASUO President Emma Kallaway and Sen. Alex McCafferty are the main organizers behind the project, which seeks to increase the scale of the program started last year.
The Student Senate granted the pair $6,885 — less than the $19,072.50 for which they were asking — Wednesday night to supplement the donations they had already received, calling it “good faith money.”
“Emma and my goal was to get more of a solid amount from surplus, probably around the tune of $18,000 to $20,000,” McCafferty said. “Then, in addition with all of the donations, that would be enough to jump-start the program for the year,” he said. “Emma and I are supposed to use that commitment and good faith money to go around with more administrators and academic programs to solicit more funds.”
The total cost of funding the project, which includes 425 to 450 free papers per day, comes to the amount of about $27,000. So far, funding has come from University President Richard Lariviere ($5,000), the School of Journalism and Communication ($1,500), Department of Political Science ($1,500) and Department of Geography ($1,000).
McCafferty estimated that each copy of The Times was read by five students last year. Sen. Carina Miller opposed the request because funding is more limited than usual this year, she said.
“The New York Times won’t be such an essential service, especially if you can get it online,” she said, also saying that the newspaper will have to compete with more essential services.
McCafferty and Kallaway said they believe in the program because of the popularity they have observed from students and by the support they have gotten from the president and academic departments on campus.
Students have shown mixed feelings about The Times’ return to campus and their fees paying for a portion of that.
“I don’t think it’s a good use of student funds; it was expensive,” fifth-year student Casey Davidson said.
Although many students noted that the stands were always empty and students were avidly reading the newspaper, those in opposition said they should instead buy the paper themselves and not use funds from a student fee.
“I don’t personally read the New York Times, so I wouldn’t want to pay for other people to read it,” said sophomore Lena Bardovi, who did not attend the University last year. “I’m paying so much for school anyway, I would rather not pay for things that I’m not using.”
The students in support of The Times’ presence on campus noted the importance of a tangible news source versus reading about current events online.
“I think it’s a great idea; I used to read it,” junior Sean Nack said. “The New York Times is a great and thorough publication. I think it’s vital that people of college age have the experience of print
journalism.”
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