The Collegiate Readership Program, which provided free daily newspapers to Georgetown students last year, is scheduled to restart in January after being cancelled this semester due to a lack of funding.
The program, run through USA Today, will bring 90 copies each of the New York Times, the Washington Post and USA Today to campus every weekday, according to Georgetown University Student Association Vice President Jason Kluger (MSB ’11). The offer includes a delivery service and distribution boxes.
Representatives from GUSA, The Corp, and Interhall chose USA Today’s offer over proposals from The New York Times and The Washington Post because it provides 70 more papers daily than the other two programs, according to Interhall Vice President of Student Advocacy Will Cousino (SFS ’12). In addition to the numerical advantage, the group also took into account Georgetown’s positive experience with the USA Today’s program last year.
“The delivery is really spot-on,” Cousino said. “[We’re] going off a history of reliability.”
The $6,000 needed for the program is coming from a variety of campus organizations. The GUSA Senate passed a bill allocating $2,000 for the program on November 22. Additional funding will be provided by the Corp, the McDonough School of Business Dean’s Office, Interhall, and from Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union.
Cousino said the group is sending out letters to other groups on campus requesting funding so that the program can continue beyond next semester. “This needs to become institutionalized so we don’t spend four months talking about this next year,” GUSA Senator Nick Troiano (COL ’11) said.
Senate continues to waste money carelessly. First on rat awareness and now this. My tuition money should be going elsewhere.