University of Virginia Library

Circulation

A flood of complaints has descended from
angry students who arrive day after day at
their favorite newsstand, often as early as eight
or nine o'clock, only to discover that every
copy of the Cavalier Daily has been taken.

The reason for the shortage, it seems, is
that faculty and administrative staff workers
are grabbing handfuls of papers for
unauthorized distribution in their respective
departments. Secretaries, especially in the
medical center, where the lack of papers has
been most pronounced, have been reported
lifting as many as 30 copies at a time,
presumably with the idea of doing their
fellow workers a favor.

The fact is that the students alone
contribute to the cost of publishing the
newspaper: through the Student Activities
Committee, we receive subsidies for the cost
of 10,000 copies daily-hardly enough for
those students who happen to pass a
newsstand during the course of the day.

While we want the faculty to continue
reading and responding to the newspaper
(although they pay nothing toward its cost),
widespread and excessive pilfering by staff
personnel must stop. Students rightly upset
by having to pay for a product they often do
not receive should be on the look-out for the
culprits. Stacks of papers lying about in
University offices are not authorized by our
circulation department and should be
reported to The Cavalier Daily.