Globe program ends

Boston University will no longer provide students free copies of The Boston Globe after a sponsor ended a deal to pay for the dailies, administrators say.
BU was part of a sponsorship program that allowed organizations in Boston to cover the cost of a university subscription, but the previous year’s sponsor, the Museum of Science, dropped its sponsorship this year.
BU opted not to pursue other options, because students can access newspapers online, Operations for Auxiliary Services Director Webb Lancaster said.
‘Every student has a cell phone, computer or PDA,’ he said. ‘I think the way we are getting the news is dramatically different now.’
The Boston Globe offered BU participation in College Readership Program, which would allow the university to receive newspapers at a reduced subscription cost, but BU officials also chose not to participate in that program.
‘BU does not have the funding for the College Readership Program,’ he said.
Though the College Readership Program costs are not listed on the Globe’s corporate website, an individual 7-day home delivery subscription for students costs $4.75 per week, which is 50 percent off its regular price. This price does not factor in any bulk discounts BU might receive were it to use the College Readership Program.
Lancaster said he does not think students need hard copies of the newspaper because many of them end up littering the campus. The Globe only charges newsstand owners for the newspapers that readers pick up, according to its website.
With circulation of newspapers declining and online readership increasing, BU’s decision should not come as a shock to anybody, Lancaster added.
‘It’s just a different business now,’ he said.
BU has not received any complaints or questions from students about the missing newspapers, Lancaster said.
The Museum of Science was unavailable for comment at press time.
Globe spokesman Bob Powers said the newspaper reaches out to sponsors, not to institutions like BU. The Museum of Science’s discontinuation follows a trend at other schools around the city.’
‘We haven’t had much success selling the sponsorship program this year,’ Powers said.
Warren Towers security guard Robert Gray said he did not see many students picking up the Boston Globe in the first place. Gray, who also works at the Warren Towers Campus Convenience, said he does not think students have been looking for the paper since it disappeared.
College of Arts and Sciences junior Amanda Thole said she was disappointed she could not grab the paper on her way to breakfast anymore. She said she did not bother to ask what happened to the paper because she ‘just figured the school was being cheap.’
CAS junior Darrell Nettlow said he read the paper regularly and was disappointed in how BU handled the situation.
‘It was just convenient to have it right there,’ he said.
School of Management sophomore Adelin Trusculescu said he did not realize the newspapers were gone. Even though he said he used to read the paper on Sundays, he said stopping delivery of the Globe is a positive thing.
‘In Warren, there were always stacks of newspapers lying around,’ he said. ‘No one was picking them up.’
SMG senior Jonathan Dermar said he prefers to get his news online because it is more instantaneous and faster to read.
‘I want to read a sentence, not a story,’ he said.
Dermar said he thinks students are too lazy to go online to read their news, however. He said he thinks students will just stop reading news now that hard copies are unavailable.
‘They’ll become out of touch,’ he said.