Pitzer, CMC join Pomona in providing free NYT subscriptions to students

Extra! Extra! If you’re a student at Pitzer College or Claremont McKenna College, you can now get a free New York Times subscription with your school email. 

The bill, proposed by Pitzer Student Senate President Clint Isom PZ ’20, passed at the Sept. 29 Pitzer Senate meeting. Subscription for full online access for all Pitzer students will cost a discounted rate of $3,880 from the Student Initiative Fund, which has a budget of just over $11,000, Isom said.

Pitzer students have the most NYT subscriptions out of the 5Cs, according to Isom, who met with Todd Halvorsen, education manager for the NYT, over the summer.

“A lot of professors assign New York Times articles as readings,” Isom said. “It just logically made sense. Making education more accessible.”

This year is a trial run, but Pitzer Senate will consider making it a line item for future years if successful, according to Isom. Once the subscription has been purchased, Pitzer students can log on with their school accounts through an online portal.

ASCMC announced in a Facebook post Sept. 15 that CMC students could get free NYT and Wall Street Journal subscriptions funded by Open Academy, a CMC initiative that “funds initiatives on campus for students to learn from an array of perspectives,” according to ASCMC President Dina Rosin CM ’20.

Rosin said many students approached her with the idea of a free NYT subscription in the spring, but the cost did not fit in the ASCMC budget. She reached out to CMC President Hiram Chodosh, who helped fund the school-wide NYT and WSJ subscriptions through Open Academy.

“For me, reading the news and staying up-to-date on current affairs is an important piece in contextualizing my education,” Rosin said.

Some CMC students were confused by the announcement, as they were able to access a free NYT subscription last year. Arielle Lui CM ’22 said she registered for one in September 2018 and continued to use it over the summer of 2019.

However, Rosin said the subscription was a one-time arrangement that ended at the beginning of last year.

For now, the new subscriptions are only being funded for one year, Rosin said. CMC students can activate their subscriptions by signing up with their school email at AccessNYT.com and WSJ.com/CMC.

Pomona College has been providing free print copies of the NYT on campus as well as online subscriptions for at least the past four years.

This story was last updated Oct. 4 at 1:13 p.m.