Paper program unlikely to pass

The college readership program has been a work in progress for several years now, and all signs point to it remaining just that -- a work in progress.\nThe program, initiated by the IU Student Association, would bring four national newspapers to campus with a $2 student fee charge.\nA committee of student representatives, staff and faculty met last week to decide upon a recommendation to the board of trustees for the proposed initiative. But the plans might be in limbo as the proposed $2 fee would not fit under the 4 percent tuition increase cap limiting increased student fees if the $30 athletics fee is approved.\n"Thirty dollars is as high as the activity fee can be raised, and the athletic fee would take all that money," IUSA Vice President Grant McFann said. "The readership program doesn't look like it has a good chance, so we are looking for other sources of money."\nThe committee decided to propose a program which would feature The New York Times, USA Today, The Indianapolis Star and The Chicago Tribune to the tune of 5,000 total newspapers per day. The group has not yet decided whether or not The Herald Times should be included in the program. The original pilot did not feature The Chicago Tribune, but the fourth paper was added for more of a regional focus at a lower price than The New York Times and USA Today, McFann said.\n"Which papers to bring ended up being not as much of an issue as the program as a whole," said John Palmer, Residence Halls Association president-elect. "We looked at the cost to students and if we should raise fees, and if so, how much. Also the impact on the IDS, we spent a lot of time discussing that."\nThe program's effect on the Indiana Daily Student presented one of the largest issues the committee had to take into consideration, Palmer said. In order to predict what type of influence the readership program would have on the campus newspaper, the committee contacted representatives from other collegiate newspapers that have to compete with a similar readership program.\n"We actually got phone numbers for many of the representatives and asked them directly how it impacted their readership," Palmer said. "Generally their responses were positive and that it hadn't been an issue."\nThe other mitigating factor facing the committee was the issue of cleaning up the thousands of added papers throughout campus. The primary area of concern was the Indiana Memorial Union, which saw the largest amount of trash increase during the pilot program. \nThe offered solutions to the trash problem were distribution bins requiring student identification cards to open, as opposed to open newspaper racks. The new bins would require more effort to obtain a paper so the number of students just walking by and taking a paper for the sake of taking a paper would be cut down, IMU Director Tom Simmons said. The new bins would be compounded with a decreased number of papers and an altercation to the location of the two IMU bins. \nThe fate of the readership program from this point on however, no longer lies in the hands of IUSA or the committee, but with the board of trustees. The initiative will be presented at the board's upcoming meeting Friday, but many suspect the athletics fee will take up all possible student fee increases. All the supporters of the program can really do now is hope for the best.\n"If the trustees choose to wait on the athletics fee, that would free up the money for the program," IUSA President Casey Cox said. "Or if they decide to cut that rate in any way then money would be freed up to go to other things, and not just athletics. I don't know what exactly the trustees will do. We just need to let our position be known and wait for the outcome"