IMU upset with papers

The IU Student Association's student readership program took off with such popularity that it has led the Indiana Memorial Union administration to question whether or not it would participate in the program should it be passed.\nThe IMU has suffered from extensive amounts of trash since the pilot program began. Students have left their skimmed-through newspapers lying on tables, in bathrooms and in the lounge areas, resulting in increased need for custodial work and a detriment to the general appearance of the building, IMU Associate Director Thomas Simmons said.\n"When students used to buy these papers, they would save it because they would want to read it later," he said. "Now people pick it up because it's free, they read it for about ten to fifteen minutes to kill time and then just leave it."\nSimmons has already presented a different proposal to IUSA Vice President Grant McFann that would function more on a "read and return" type of basis. Simmons' proposal would have a lesser amount of papers that students could pick up and read as they please then return once they are finished. The trial would be more cost effective and focus more on the increased readership as opposed to students just using the papers to kill time.\n"There are about 900 newspapers daily, and I don't think we would want to participate with that many newspapers in the union building," Simmons said. "I think it creates too much of a mess."\nThe IMU, however, hasn't been the only building suffering from increased garbage. Both Wright and Gresham food courts have been homes to the readership program bins and have seen an increase in newspapers left out on tables.\n"Once in a while we would find an IDS, but now there are three more times the papers, so there is three more times the papers left lying around," Wright Food Court Manager Sandy Porter said.\nBoth of the food courts have been forced to deal with the same circumstances as the IMU, but their take on the situation differs. Porter said that the food courts are there for the students, so if the student body wants them, then the staff will work with it.\n"Before we used to have the IDS and that never seemed to be a problem, but now we have three different brands," Gresham Food Court Assistant Manager Jeff Kutche said. "It's not really a big deal. If people enjoy it and like doing it, then I don't think having extra papers on the tables is that big of a problem."\nIUSA President Casey Cox said that McFann has already spoken with an environmental disposal representative from USA Today. McFann could not be reached for comment.\n-- Contact senior writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.