A previous version of the story printed in the Feb. 15 print issue of The Pace Press stated that SDACA cut funding for thes resources for students. The decision was actually made by the student-run Budget Allocation Council (BAC), which oversees the student activities fee. A detailed update on this story will follow.
This academic year, the University discontinued free printed student subscriptions to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The availability of paper copies on campus were funded through the Student Activities Fee overseen by Budget Allocation Council. A reworking of the budget led to a decision to drop funding for this resource. Student access to the publications are still available for online access through the library databases.
No official announcement was made about the change. Some student tour guides were told it’s no longer a service.
“I used to read The Wall Street Journal every day, it helped with my classes,” said Marina Testani, Junior at the university and co-captain of The Federal Reserve Challenge Team. She continued, “Our work for Fed Team heavily relies on us being able to keep up with the news, and it’s much harder when that news is not easily accessible at our university.”
“I think we should have these resources because, as a Lubin student, having access to the news is important,” said Colleen McGovern, first-year Lubin School of Business student, “We should be kept up to date, especially living in the Financial District.”
“It is unfortunate to see these publications removed from the campus,” said Communications Studies Professor Seong Jae Min, “Having the hard copies on campus was a good incentive to encourage newspaper reading, which is in decline for the younger generation. I sometimes took the hard copies myself to the classroom and shared news stories with students. I think I will be missing them.”
As students were unaware of the initial removal of the papers, many are concerned that they are being kept out of the loop regarding their own student budget.
“I feel like it’s partly the student body’s fault for being silent about it and not saying what they want their money to go towards but I wish I was more involved,” said first-year film studies student Jason Laaguno, “I’m disappointed that these perks were advertised when I applied to Pace and now I don’t have access to essential subscriptions in the business world,” Laaguno continued, “I was really into the crossword!”
Correction 2/27/2018 – Todd M. Smith-Bergollo of SDACA was reached for comment. He stated that “is not accurate in that it states that SDACA oversees the Student Activities Fee and that title of the article states that the University stopped this funding. The decisions regarding spending of the Student Activities Fee are made by the student-run Budget Allocation Council (BAC) – not SDACA and not the University.” The article was edited to reflect this information. Mr. Smith-Bergollo further stated that “the students in BAC have had to make some very difficult decisions in terms of funding over the past year and I think they have done so thoughtfully and with much discussion.”
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