College Readership Program

Journalistic service is reduced to one digital subscription in current ASG fall budget

Luke Garrett / News Editor / The USD Vista

Beginning this fall, University of San Diego students will no longer have free access to two digital subscriptions, instead they will only have one — meaning either The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times will be available to students this year. 

In their final budgetary vote last May, USD’s Associated Student Government (ASG) continued a year-long trend of defunding the College Readership Program (CRP). This program, now a shell of its former self, is a free journalistic service available to USD students. 

This service was originally designed to inform students of local, national, and world affairs. 

“Reading a daily newspaper will enable a greater understanding of events occurring beyond the campus as well as provide real-world examples of course theory in practice,” the USD Residential Life website reads. 

As recently as the 2017-2018 academic year, students were provided with three physical and digital newspapers from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The San Diego Union-Tribune. 

The USD student government action to defund all physical newspapers was one of the first decisions made by last year’s ASG executive team. This initial decision led to much senate reaction: a unanimous vote for a referendum, a presidential veto to the senate’s vote, a senate override, and finally a senatorial warning to the then-president, Natasha Salgado. 

The May vote to further limit the news service was voted for by the senate majority, led by Salgado. The minority argued against the vote and made note that no action had ever been made on Resolution 2018-2, which voted to give students a say in the CRP through a referendum.

According to the ASG meeting minutes, the executive team initially defunded The Wall Street Journal, “because not as many students know about it,” Setpahnie Silvar said. 

Student senators opposed made note that this defunding saves the fall budget $12,000 — less than one percent of the Fall 2019 budget, according to Reijer den Dulk, the then-Director of Changemaking Initiatives. 

A motion was made to continue funding the digital subscription to The Wall Street Journal along with The New York Times. The motion failed, as it needed to be unanimous, and three senators opposed.

The current ASG executive team was set to decide which subscription will be kept, and which will be discontinued this past summer. The current ASG President, Marion Chavarria Rivera, did not initially respond to questions regarding the CRP. 

Although when with ASG staff advisor, Jennifer Lee, Rivera and Lee both said no decision has been made on which newspaper digital subscription will be funded,  and that ASG is working with the USD School of Business to fund both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. 

The first ASG senate meeting of the semester is Thursday, Sept. 19 in Solomon Hall.