Letter to the Editor: Justin Marquette

In the March 12 article “Reading the Readers” it is reported that a switch to online newspaper subscriptions of The New York Times and The Washington Post are changes that “have been made in order to make the news more accessible to a larger audience, improve the college’s goal of sustainability and adhere to the reduced budget.” SGA President Alyssa Coop is even quoted as saying, “People were appalled that we were still buying physical newspapers.”

Why are people only appalled at the fact that Concordia was buying physical newspapers and not at the fact that Concordia still produces its own physical newspaper?

As a college and as a student body that prides itself on how sustainable we are, we should be embarrassed that we produce our very own physical newspaper, while at the same time condoning physical copies of outside newspapers.

In almost three years here at Concordia, I’ve never seen a group of people sitting around and reading The Concordian. People seem to have this notion that groups of people sit in Anderson Commons or the atrium and discuss the headlines of The Concordian like a scene out of Harry Potter. But that simply isn’t the case. It took provocative opinion articles for me to notice active conversation around campus about The Concordian and the information it was reporting.

Every morning I receive an email with the daily headlines of The New York Times. I could very well receive another email with the weekly headlines of The Concordian that would direct me to its digital platform or an email with a PDF version of the paper.

I understand the desire to read physical newspapers, but that desire extends beyond Concordia’s own newspaper. It’s hypocritical to say that it’s okay to read a physical copy of The Concordian but for sustainability reasons you need to read The New York Times online.

I understand the argument that The Concordian has worked hard to decrease its waste, and that it’s only a small fraction of the overall printing that happens on campus. But it’s still being printed which is causing waste and costing money. As stated in the article, the college has sustainability goals and reduced budget goals, and making The Concordian purely digital would do nothing but help those goals.

This article was submitted by Justin Marquette, contributing writer.