In Friday's edition of the Alligator, Student Body Treasurer Maryam Laguna wrote that after a temporary gap in delivery, The New York Times would be restored to newspaper boxes on campus starting Monday. However, what she neglected to mention is that despite the temporary return of the Times, the paper's readership program still has been cut from the next proposed Student Government budget.
The Times is a respected national newspaper of record that many students on campus use to stay informed and follow the news. Fifteen hundred people have already joined a Facebook group to save the Times at UF, and more are joining every day. One student even said that the Times was the only thing SG had ever directly done for her. Why then is it the first thing to go?
The Times also is used for academic purposes throughout the university. Several classes within the College of Journalism and Communications require students to read The New York Times every day, and taking the Times out of newspaper boxes makes it even harder for students to complete their assignments.
In addition to these practical uses of the paper, the Times' presence in newspaper boxes is part of what makes us a true university. Access to information is a key part of the academic experience, and students deserve to have a reputable national newspaper available, just as one is at almost all of our peer institutions.
This most recent cut to the budget comes from the Student Senate's budget committee and its chairman, Virlaney Taboada (Unite Party - District D), the same group that tried to defund several key student organizations this past year. In a $14.4 million budget, why are the services that actually benefit real, ordinary students the first to be cut?
The budget committee has suggested that the online version of the Times will suffice, but having articles online and an actual newspaper in your hand are two substantively different things. Most students without "smart phones" can't read the online version walking between classes, that is unless they intend to walk around campus holding their laptops open (which, though comical, probably isn't such a great idea). And for places without Internet access, students won't be able to read the Times at all.
Even worse than the committee's choice to cut the Times is that they left huge examples of wasteful spending on the books, which, if cut, could easily cover the cost of the Times readership program. The so-called "SG Master Plan," which according to Laguna will be used to hire consultants to make an "assessment of Student Government" and "evaluate how Student Government operates," remains in the budget for $35,000. And the $50,000 in the previous year's "Master Plan"? That's being used to "give us an idea of the services/space we would need if a new Student Union was built." Give me a break.
As a student senator, I promise to vote against any budget that cuts the Times while keeping wasteful spending like the SG Master Plan and perks for SG officials on the books, and I invite any other senator, regardless of party, to join me in this pledge. However, the few senators who support the Times cannot do this alone.
Students need to take a stand and defend the Times on campus. We need to remind the Senate that it is here to represent you, and that SG should stop putting perks over people.
The budget will be presented at the Senate meeting tomorrow night, and the first vote is one week later. If enough students voice their opinions and show SG that the Times is here to stay, I know that we can be successful in getting the readership program added back into the budget.
Jonathan Ossip is the Senate Minority Leader of Student Government.
