ASUSU ponders newspaper decision, committee appointed to investigate
A proposed plan that would make hundreds of copies of daily newspapers available to Utah State University students is being pondered by an Associated Students of USU ad hoc committee.
A presentation made last week to the ASUSU Executive Council by representatives from USA Today brought about the creation of a committee, chaired by Education Senator Jennifer Minchey, to investigate whether a free-newspaper plan would be beneficial to USU students.
The one snag in the plan that some ASUSU officials are finding, is that the program is not entirely free. Students would pay for the program with an increase in student fees, as much as $5 per student, per semester. Doug Fraser, the national manager for education sales for USA Today, said the program is meant to gives students the “perception of free.”
Based on a self-selective Utah Statesman online poll, 78 percent of responses said they would not support having multiple daily newspapers available for students on campus if it meant an increase in student fees. The online poll had received 146 votes as of Tuesday night.
Minchey said the 11 members of the ad hoc committee had decided to do more research on the issue before making a recommendation to the rest of the Executive Council. She said her concern lies in finding the appropriate use of the money that would be used to fund the program, which would total approximately $250,000 per year.
“There’s a lot of things we could do with that much money,” Minchey said.
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Senator Gabe White said he had composed a bill which would require ASUSU to present a survey to students before implementing USA Today’s four-week pilot program. The bill would have required the survey to be certified as scientific and unbiased by USU political science and statistics professors.
White, however, said he withdrew the bill for the current time, waiting for more research to be presented from the ad hoc committee.
“I received some personal guarantees from committee members in the ad hoc committee that, prior to instituting the pilot program or running anything, we would show some more research before running a survey,” White said.
No further decision regarding the newspaper program was made during the ASUSU council meeting Tuesday, but council members participated in a straw poll on the issue. Supporters of implementing a pilot program outnumbered non-supporters by a 10 to 8 margin in the poll. Executive Vice President Ariel Thrapp abstained from voting in the poll.
White said the results of the straw poll were about what he expected, saying he even thought there might be a little more support for the issue.
“One of the reasons we withdrew the bill was because the ad hoc committee formed was formed specifically to study the issue,” White said.
Both White and Minchey said council members’ opinions might change after more information is presented. White, who said he is against the program and the fact that it deceives students with its “perception of free,” believes some council members will change their minds when more information is presented.
– str@cc.usu.edu