The empty newsstands in Boston University classroom buildings and dormitory lobbies have puzzled students and administrators alike, prompting the question: Where have all the free copies of The Boston Globe gone?
“Nobody contacted any of the administrative offices or Residence Life to notify that the papers were not coming,” Vice President of Auxiliary Services Webb Lancaster said. “I didn’t realize the papers were not being delivered, and I don’t think anybody else did.”
BU has had an ongoing partnership with the Globe for several years, Lancaster said.
“I was surprised,” BU spokesman Colin Riley said. “The program to our knowledge has expired.”
Lancaster said the free newspaper program’s overseer told him the sponsorship may have ended, or there could have been a glitch in the delivery system. He said there also may have been some confusion about the starting paper delivery date for the spring semester.
Speaking on the behalf of the College of Communication only, COM Director of Administration and Finance Maureen Clark said the COM Boston Globe subscription was cancelled due to wasted papers.
“We used to order [the Boston Globe] every fall for the COM101 class, and this fall was the worst waste of paper we noticed,” Clark said. “Students were reading the paper online instead of manually, and it became a budget issue.”
Clark said the free Globes in COM were discontinued for the entirety of the spring semester.
“We are pinching pennies as it is,” College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Jahnavi Bhangley said. “I think it’s crazy that the university isn’t providing the paper.”
Bhangley said she lives off-campus and has had difficulty obtaining a hard copy of the Globe for her journalism class. She said she checks the City Convenience stores three to four times a day because the papers sell out quickly.
City Convenience at Warren Towers manager Peter Stafford said his store is trying to adapt to the new “student need,” putting out triple its usual amount of Globes this semester.
Professor Lou Ureneck, the journalism department Chair, said professors have expressed curiosity about the newspaper disappearance as well. He requires his students to bring a physical copy of the paper to class because online material is different than the printed paper.
Ureneck said he planned to request that COM interim Dean Tobe Berkovitz renew the paper subscription because “the easier we make it for students to have access [to the paper], the more likely they are to read it.”
“People complain about how young people are apathetic,” Bhangley said. “If the university is not providing us with the paper, the stereotype continues.”
Lancaster said he hopes to hear back from the readership program’s overseer about where the free papers have gone and try to get them back on campus soon.