The importance of being informed

End of College Readership Program starves students of information

Eric Boose / Opinion Editor / The USD Vista

There is something special about a newspaper. In an increasingly digital world, nothing delivers the news quite like a physical newspaper. With our cell phones, we can choose the stories we read, we can tailor the news we receive to fit our individualized interests. Convenient as that may be, it is not how the news was meant to be consumed. Journalists are not waiters in a restaurant, serving you the stories you want, just the way you would like them prepared. Our job as journalists is to report the news and to report all of it. Where our phones allow us to pick and choose what to read, a newspaper directs us to the most important stories, issues that impact our state, our country, our world – issues that will impact our future. As college students, we have reached an age where we can no longer remain blissfully ignorant. We are the generation that will have to solve problems that exist today. In that pursuit, there is no power like knowledge.

In this country’s infancy, Thomas Jefferson wrote that a well-informed electorate is key to any democracy. As such, the First Amendment guarantees a free press in this country. However, what good is a free press if people cannot read it? There is no doubt that journalism is under threat in the United States. As more people turn away from print media in favor of their cell phones, small newspapers have to downsize or shut down entirely. At USD, our Associated Students senate has unfortunately chosen to turn their backs on print media as well. 

USD students can access free online-only subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, but cannot access those same publications in their print form. While access to the level of journalism produced by those publications is important, many students are unaware that they have access to those subscriptions. Again, online newspapers do not provide the crucial direction unique to print journalism. Currently, The USD Vista is the only newspaper on stands across campus, but it was not always this way. As recently as last spring, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The New York Times,  and USA Today joined this paper on those stands, available to students free of charge. Over the summer, with students and AS senators away from campus, a group of executive AS members made the decision to stop funding the College Readership Program (CRP), which provided those newspapers. This fall, the status of the CRP provoked a debate within AS not only about the future of the program, but about the relationship between the legislative and executive branches of AS. At this point, now the second semester without newspapers on campus, the larger debate should be set aside in favor of providing students with the power of information. 

No matter how many students take the time to pick up a paper and read it, the CRP provided this campus community free access to multiple journalistic perspectives. Rarely is there only one way to effectively report the news. Rarely does one journalist provide a perfect story. Rarely can opinions be fully informed by only one source. When The USD Vista, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The New York Times, and USA Today all graced the same newsstand, students had access to four journalistic approaches, four ways of reporting the news, four editorial teams deciding what stories are most important to the public. Now, only one perspective on the news sits on those same stands around campus. 

Worse, the executive branch of our Associated Students, the governing body meant to represent the students of USD, has decided that the opportunity to be fully informed is not an opportunity we would like to have. Not only does this decision unfairly deprive students of journalistic diversity, but it blatantly disregards the democratic process. When AS senators returned to campus this fall, they passed a resolution to vote on the future of newspapers on campus, which was immediately vetoed. Even when the senate voted to override the veto, no campus-wide vote followed. Somehow, the executive branch of AS managed to uphold a decision made without representation from students. 

Essentially, the readership program was stolen, and now AS has decided that we the students have to ask for something back that we never said we wanted gone. One of the issues on this spring’s Associated Students ballot will be a referendum to fund newspapers on campus for next year. Room for the newspapers already exists in the AS budget, as it has for all the years the program was actually funded. Because the room in the budget exists, bringing newspapers back to campus will not incur any extra costs to students. As easy as it is to disengage from AS elections, restoring free newspapers to stands around campus is an issue of paramount importance. If for no other reason, vote to rebuke the executive branch overstepping its boundaries.

By returning newspapers to stands around campus, the breadth of information available to students will be restored to its former strength. As Jefferson said, information is required for the survival of a democracy. The 2020 presidential campaign is already well underway, and it has the potential to be one of the most important presidential elections in the history of American democracy. That election will likely be the first time that many USD students cast a ballot. Those first-time voters and all members of the USD campus community deserve the opportunity to gather as much information about candidates with as little difficulty as possible in order to cast a vote that truly represents their interests. I will be voting to restore the College Readership Program in order to bring the power of knowledge back to campus and to insure a well-informed electorate has every chance to succeed at USD. 

There is something about a newspaper. Newspapers strive to discover the truth and reveal it to the public. Newspapers help frame the discussion around issues that impact our world every day. Newspapers present informed opinions and ask their readers to think about complex societal issues. Newspapers create the well-informed electorate Jefferson called the key to a democracy. Newspapers help us know, and as The Washington Post puts it, “Knowing empowers us. Knowing helps us decide. Knowing keeps us free.”