The University may soon be footing the bill for delivery of the New York Times and other papers to public areas on campus. The Student Senate has signed up for a trial run of the New York Times’ “Knowledge Network,” which will distribute copies of that and other papers throughout the Portland and Gorham campuses free of charge.
The trial period is free and will be used to determine whether the University likes the papers enough to pay for them. The cost of the program, if adopted for good, depends on demand. The demand on the free papers, and a survey conducted before and after the trial period, will be used in that decision.
The program will run from April 5 to 30. For that time the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Portland Press Herald will be available from Monday to Friday at the following locations: the Brooks Campus Center and Bailey Hall in Gorham; The Woodbury Campus Center and Luther-Bonney Hall in Portland; the Law Building; and all dormitories.
“There will also be a website where you can look up articles from the past several months, as well as resources for teachers who want to use the papers in their classes,” said James McKean, a Student Senator who is fronting the effort to bring the New York Times program to the USM campus. He is optimistic that the USM community will buy into the program. “I have talked to people about it and it seems well liked.” He also stressed that all unused papers will be recycled.
Several student senators are unimpressed with the selection of newspapers in the program. Senator John Read asked McKean, “Are we going to get a paper that isn’t slanted horribly to the left?” McKean said he had asked about the Wall Street Journal. That paper does not participate in the New York Times’ Knowledge Network.
John Brocktoon can be reached at [email protected]