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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

NEWSLETTER
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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Letters to the editor

The end of the Collegiate Readership Program

Every morning since freshman year, I would wake up, go downstairs and grab three newspapers: The New York Times, USA Today and The Washington Post.

I would read each newspaper throughout the day, over coffee in the morning or in between classes during lunch. The Collegiate Readership Program at GW played a vital role in my years spent there – so much so that I even donated my class gift to it. (Alumni Association, I would like my $10 back.)

During my sophomore year, I clipped articles from those newspapers after every Phillies World Series victory. I found out about a free lecture with Conan O’Brien at the newly reopened Ford’s Theatre because I read the weekend section of The Washington Post. I collected the newspapers from the day Barack Obama was elected and the day of his inauguration.

Despite the fact that I now work for a newspaper’s website, I know from my times at GW that reading a paper in print is a different, more valuable experience than reading online.

I am disappointed that the Collegiate Readership Program is gone, even though I can’t take advantage of it anymore as a recent graduate. It’s sad that current students won’t be able to get news print on their fingers, unless of course, they’re reading this letter to the editor in The Hatchet.

Jayne Orenstein graduated from the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences in 2011.


As reported in “Daily paper delivery falls to budget cuts,” (Sept. 8, page 1) copies of The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today will no longer be available in residence halls.

But despite the Collegiate Readership Program’s end, you have many ways to still read those newspapers every day.

Aside from being able to access news articles through LexisNexis, hard copies of The New York Times and The Washington Post are available in the library. You can still see The Washington Post and USA Today online in its paper format on the Press Display database in Aladin. The Wall Street Journal, which wasn’t offered by the program, is similarly available both in print and online.

David Ettinger, Ph.D. is an International Affairs and Political Science Librarian at Gelman Library.

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