Since the $2 student fee was approved in spring 2009, the University has participated in the Collegiate Readership Program, which allows for free weekday access to print copies of The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and USA Today. The University student code mandates that the fee is reviewed by the student body by way of a referendum at least once every four years.

Now the time has come for us to not only renew our subscription to the program but also renew our support for keeping the student body aware of local, national and international news. As college students, we face criticism at all angles for being uninformed (sometimes misinformed), ignorant, oblivious, perhaps naive. In just that light alone, the importance of this program is apparent.

This program is symbolic of our support for students being aware of the world they live in. Questioning and participating in global discussions. Having informed opinions. Seeking information from multiple sources. Deciding for himself or herself the bias of sources. Doing everything in their power to dispel the stereotype of the partyboy/partygirl college student, instead informing college students, ready to join in addressing key issues after graduation. 

As journalists at The Daily Illini, which continues to produce a print product, we are fully aware that there is no long-term efficacy of funding a print-based newspaper program. As we put in our votes today and Wednesday, we urge student senators and administrators to take a second look at the possibility providing online subscriptions to students in the future.

Students swim with the current on the trend of receiving and absorbing news content in an online format. Average daily consumption through the program is a measly 1,409 newspapers, which, out of about 40,000 students, is disheartening but possibly a poor representation of actual interest. Those remaining students, we’d like to think, are not mindless drones; they are connected by their smartphones, tablets and computers. They are reading and sharing hundreds and thousands of articles at YouNameIt.com as they pass by the bins filled with stacks of paper that would only add extra weight to their backpack. And why shouldn’t we be promoting the estimable work by the news media, seeking to break barriers, engage readers and further increase interactivity?

The Collegiate Readership Program, started by USA Today in 1997, offers a discounted rate on these newspapers already. 

As the readership program works, the University only pays for what students read. But if the point of the program is to increase news accessibility for all students, it would seem that a price increase would be warranted — and students would probably front the cost.

If anything, the program allows access for students who wouldn’t normally be able to afford a subscription to a newspaper like The New York Times or the Chicago Tribune. The availability of these papers provides a nice break from the onslaught of amateur blogs we are hit with every day. 

Upon reaffirmation of the fee, we look to a new push for the digital distribution of this professional and useful journalism.