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Home > Residences > Distribution of Publications in the Residences Why Choose Door-to-Door Distribution? Free Speech: You've come to Stanford to challenge your conceptions of the world; what better way to do so than to expose yourself to the full breadth of viewpoints and issues that matter to other passionate Stanford students. While you may also be exposed to exhibits and events in common space like White Plaza or campus auditoriums, door-to-door distribution affords an unparalleled opportunity to engage a myriad of issues in your own pace and on your own terms. The additional effort required to dispose of unwanted publications at your doorstop pales in comparison of the harms of depriving yourself of exposure to meaningful discourse. Even if you believe your life would be easier without the hassle of publications at your door, preventing the dissemination of student publications, in what should be a community of scholars, seems antithetical to the purpose of education in the residences, and college as a whole. Free speech is about a community need for free and unfettered access to ideas. Self-education/ability to learn is about one’s personal commitment to learning new things. Equal Opportunity for Publications: Without greater readership access, only better-funded, more-established and mainstream publications will be available for student consumption. Central distribution sites favor wealthier publications that publish more frequently. When competing for attention in a central distribution kiosk; larger, glossier, full-color magazines will almost certainly overshadow less-funded publications. Given this asymmetry of visibility, potential readers and contributors may be deprived of meaningful literature and discourse. You can only determine what is and what is not a worthy publication if you have easy access to all. Cycle of Publication Poverty Publications that begin with privileged visibility are more likely than new, small publications to cull the signatures and votes necessary to secure more student funding. Hence, precluding door-to-door funding only perpetuates this cycle and thus prevents each publication from receiving its due readership. The quality and diversity of publications at Stanford will ultimately stagnate without greater emphasis on presenting an outlet to often-marginalized magazines.
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