PUBLISHED five days a week, The Cavalier Daily is an available and accessible source of news and commentary around Grounds. However, this paper is concerned first and foremost with the community and people of this University, rather than the world at large. The Cavalier Daily should not be expected to provide the level of coverage that a major newspaper does, but the void of such coverage still stands. The University should provide complimentary copies of The New York Times and The Washington Post in areas heavily trafficked by students because such access to a news source would offer students the opportunity to stay abreast of national and international news and foster a more interested, informed student body.
A major national paper like The New York Times offers something that The Cavalier Daily, for a variety of reasons, cannot. Without speaking for my fellow Opinion department colleagues, I am personally willing to acknowledge that the Op-Ed section in a paper like The New York Times or The Washington Post is probably a few notches above what I churn out on a weekly basis.
Deprecation aside, national newspapers offer a less Charlottesville-centric approach to news than The Cavalier Daily could reasonably be expected to produce. A national paper offers a depth of journalism that goes far beyond the major headlines of the day that make it to the pages of The Cavalier Daily. The University should recognize a wider range of news as a valuable tool, because access to an external paper would enhance and facilitate discussion and understanding of current events amongst its students.
Available national newspapers might be considered an amenity, but they would also serve a significant purpose here. The University prides itself on being a top-tier academic institution and expects a high standard of its students. In most regards, this expectation is complimented by an excellent approach to education, but in failing to provide access to national papers, the University is failing to give its students every opportunity to augment the intellectual curiosity upon which our prestigious reputation rests.
To be mentioned in the same sentence as the finest institutions of learning in the United States, the University must make every resource possible available to its students. Stacks of national newspapers like The New York Times or The Washington Post in areas that students frequently visit would increase the media currently available. "I'd definitely read The New York Times if they had them in Newcomb," stated second-year student Aaron Fisher. Students would have easy access to some of the best journalism in print and would be more likely to take an active interest in current events.
The crux of the issue is access to these national papers. While The New York Times and papers like it are all available online, electronic access pales in comparison to the printed word. True, all of us already have access to the full content of these papers, and Web sites feature the added benefit of being able to peruse auxiliary articles and archived materials immediately, but getting online to check the headlines can be tedious. For the more diligent amongst us, this issue may be somewhat moot, but I can't be alone in my preference for the physical copy.
Newspapers in print offer a level of accessibility that their online versions inherently lack because readers do not need a computer to get the latest news. You can read half an article in the dining hall, then finish the rest of it on your way to (or even during) class, which would be difficult -- if not impossible -- on a laptop. The New York Times Online may offer the same content as its print version, but most readers are more familiar with the layout of a newspaper rather than a Web site. Instead of shuffling through links and working through various menus, a newspaper allows its reader instant access to the words on the page.
People are simply more comfortable with a paper in their hand than on a screen, and if students could easily obtain a copy of the Times, they would be more likely to read it. The stacks of Cavalier Dailies outside each dining hall on Grounds are already a go-to option for students trying to grab a quick lunch; the convenience of having a stack of a national newspaper similarly available would encourage students to read up on world events when they otherwise might settle for last week's copy of The Declaration. And while there are copies of regional and national papers in the libraries, I have yet to come across anyone who can actually manage those wooden spindles. "I don't want to be in the library any more than I have to," noted Fisher. "Why would I go just to stand there with a newspaper?" Students should not have to go out of their way to get the news, but a stack of newspapers in areas where students spend down time would facilitate and encourage intellectual pursuit.
The University makes provisions for excellence in the classroom, but when it comes to supplementing that learning, students are without convenient access to expansive, in-depth coverage of current events. The Cavalier Daily can't do it alone; the University should provide copies of The New York Times and The Washington Post to further the intellectual curiosity of its students.
David Infante's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at dinfante@cavalierdaily.com.
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