It is difficult to measure how many students read the New York Times each day, but a program planned by a political science professor and the ASUO could create a significant jump in readership on campus during the next academic year.
Political science professor Jane Cramer and ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz are raising funds to have 600 copies of the nation’s paper of record delivered to common areas on campus beginning in the fall.
“If you all read the same paper you can debate what’s right and wrong about the same story,” Cramer said in explaining the importance of the program. She said most nearby institutions already have a readership program.
The subscription will cost $25,000 and will include a visit to campus from a correspondent, columnist, editor or publisher from the Times.
Dotters-Katz said the program will begin in the fall, though if he cannot secure enough funding, the campus could get half as many papers per day. He said he expects to receive $12,500 in donations, including $4,000 from the office of University President Dave Frohnmayer.
“Part of the University of Oregon’s mission is to prepare our students to be productive members of a global society,” Frohnmayer said in a prepared statement. “A key component to ensuring this is accomplished is providing plentiful opportunities to gain insights from the broader world and its news sources.
“The President’s Office supports the initiative to bring the New York Times Readership Program to the University of Oregon. Many of our peer institutions participate in similar programs and have reported healthy levels of debate and deeper understanding when current event topics are incorporated into course work and social conversations.”
A promotional packet for the program touts its potential use in sociology, geography and marketing courses, among others.
Cramer, who teaches international studies, said the Times is necessary because it is the only paper in the U.S. that covers international news “in a consistent and timely fashion.”
While the paper is criticized by the political right as being too liberal, the political left often views it as the establishment, she said.
“It’s not a perfect paper, it’s just the best paper,” Cramer said.
Chelsea Watkins, a senior accounting major, said she does not read the Times because she has a student subscription to the Wall Street Journal. Most business professors “highly, highly recommend” reading the Journal, she said. “Some even pass around sign-up sheets to have it delivered.”
But Watkins said she would read the Times if she had access to it.
Cramer said printed newspapers are easier to skim and find stories a reader might not seek out on the Internet.
“A lot of our students get their news from little flashing things on the side of a webpage. Or they get their news from Jon Stewart,” she said, which is great but it’s “not real news.”
So far the leadership of the Erb Memorial Union, the Oregon Consortium for International and Area Studies and the ASUO Senate have all pledged funds, Dotters-Katz said.
If students want to keep the program, Dotters-Katz said he will try to make it a contracted service provided by the ASUO in the future.
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