Black, white and read

Wouldn't it be great if we could get the Indianapolis Star, the USA Today and the New York Times every day? Great news everyone, now we can. But you have to read the fine print before enjoying this great deal. \nThe pilot program, funded by USA Today, will distribute an assortment of the three papers for a trial period. After the period is over, a committee will meet and discuss whether to charge students a $2 activity fee to bring the papers to campus permanently. \nThe first issue is, only 3,000 total papers are being provided each day for 38,589 students. But it's OK -- it just means about 13 people have to share one paper. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It would promote more intellectual sharing among IU students, make meeting other students around campus easier and improve student's debating skills over the many issues we would read together in the paper. \n Second, there is no guarantee a paper is going to be there for you to read when you want to read it. These newsstands are in eight locations around campus. The papers are accessible by everyone on a first come first serve basis, which includes professors who haven't paid the two-dollar fee. If we wanted to give the professors a gift, instead of the papers students have paid for, we should raise money and buy them their own subscriptions.\nThird, these three papers are free on the Internet. Students can sign up for a login to the New York Times and read the daily paper for free. The other two papers don't even require a login. You just click on the story you want to read. Why pay for something that is already free? \nFourth, the IUSA has tried this kind of program before. Last year, they brought the New York Times to campus. The program was not successful because of there were too few papers. Now they think by bringing 3,000 papers to campus it is going to right the same problem the program had last year? Well, the answer is no.\nThe new program suffers from the same tribulations as the last one. For the program to be done right, one thing must be done -- the IUSA needs to provide enough papers so every student can obtain one without trouble. But in order to do this, the $2 cost would have to be increased.\nWe don't think this program is necessary to aid students in their endeavor to receive state, national or international news. Charging each student for something not everyone will receive is not fair.