Campus has a lack of news variety
Cartoon by Abby Gross.
If you picked up a copy of this newspaper, either you need some scrap newspaper to wrap a gift poor-college-student style or you actually care about your campus enough to read The Reflector. Hopefully it’s the latter.
But maybe you’re reading this because there is simply nothing else to read. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the only newspapers floating around campus are copies of The Reflector. Apparently we’re stuck at the Greyhound bus stop. There is nowhere for UIndy students to go for community, regional, national or world news. Does this university genuinely believe that the only news students need to know is covered entirely by The Reflector?
News Flash: Here at The Reflector, we publish news that holds value for our students and is relevant to this campus community. The Reflector, while a good source for campus news, is not a substitute for a comprehensive daily newspaper that covers city, national and international news. The broader news of the city of Indianapolis, the nation and the world is completely out of our jurisdiction.
I believe that UIndy should invest in its students’ educations by providing more newspapers in addition to The Reflector. I’m talking about copies of the Indianapolis Star, New York Times or USA Today, newspapers that report a much larger scope of news. As an institution of higher education, the University of Indianapolis has an obligation to educate its students to be successful in their future professions and the society in which they live. It seems that UIndy has overlooked its obligation to educate its students to be successful citizens. We pride ourselves with our “Education for Service” motto, but how can our students serve society if they are uninformed of current issues and events? As a sophomore at UIndy, I feel more uninformed than ever, and it’s not because I’m apathetic.
It’s because I don’t have a newspaper in my hands. Ever since I was in middle school, I was fascinated with my local newspaper. First I was glued to the comics section, but eventually I made my way to the meatier parts of the paper and read about local, state, national and international news. I became addicted to reading the newspaper, partly because I couldn’t eat my morning cereal without reading something and partly because I loved staying informed. In middle and high school, my teachers made current events an important part of the classroom and stressed the importance of being a well-informed citizen. I naturally assumed that I would become an even more informed and intelligent citizen in college.
But then I came to UIndy, and my morning routine of cereal with a healthy side of the newspaper was crushed. My status as a relatively-informed citizen went down the garbage disposal with my cereal.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Recently, I visited another university similar in size to UIndy for a soccer game. In this university’s recreation center, there were three newspapers available free of charge to anyone with a valid student ID card. The newspapers offered were one local, one regional and one national paper and were neatly stacked in a see-through case that simply required students to swipe their card. These newspapers were made available through a program called the Collegiate Readership Program, which was developed by Penn State University in 1997 and is now nationally organized by the USA Today.
According to the USA Today website, the purpose of the Collegiate Readership Program is “to enhance the learning environment on campus by exposing students to the news in their living, working, and community spaces.” Among the cited benefits are civic literacy, preparation for living in a global society and exposure to diverse perspectives. The program is touted as a flexible program that offers a combination of up to three different newspapers.
Why isn’t UIndy investing in such a valuable program? As students, we’ve invested, a lot, might I add, in a private education at a great university. We’ve invested in UIndy because we expect this university to be just as invested in us as students and individuals who are preparing for our futures. Offering more newspapers on campus free of charge would help foster better, more-informed citizens. When citizens are informed of the current events and issues in society, they are more likely to engage in service to address these issues. And isn’t that the purpose of our beloved “Education for Service” motto? Educating our students not just for the sake of education, but to make this world a better place?
