Why Choose Centralized Distribution?

• Privacy
• Safety
• Environmental Health
• Autonomy
• Inflated Circulation

Privacy

You pay a lot of money to go to Stanford. You pay a lot of money to live in a Stanford residence. Your money doesn't just entitle you to occupy your room and determine what happens therein-it excludes others from impinging upon the space for which you have paid. You wouldn't want random businesses plastering their flyers and coupons all over your doorway. So why should you afford publications such a luxury? Even if tossing out a heap of paper every week isn't a prohibitively onerous task to undertake, it is your right to be spared of that burden.

Nothing, not even an 8.5" x 11" stack of paper ought to trespass on your space-especially when it is readily available for mass consumption in a central, nearby location. If there were nowhere else in a dorm where one could grab publications, then maybe door-to-door proponents would have a case. The added-exposure to publications through door-to-door distribution is marginal at best and unacceptable given the cost to your personal privacy and discretion over your personal space.

Safety

Yes, we live in the proverbial "Stanford bubble"; but, over the years, trespassers in student residences have become a frightening reality. Consenting to let strangers casually wander your halls and slide anything they want under your door only tempts fate. The greater the number of people granted carte blanche access to a residence, the more likely a theft, intrusion or other unpleasant outcome becomes. Even a remote risk becomes prohibitively high-and for what? perusing magazines at your doorstep rather than walking mere feet to a kiosk? Is that saved-effort worth compromising your safety?

Environmental Health

With door to door distribution, each publication will increase in their numbers to allow for each room to have enough copies for each resident. Most publications are moving toward an on-line presence and increasing the amount of paper used to publish as well as the waste created by additional publications has a negative environmental impact. With distributed delivery, there is also less proximity to recycling bins unless each student commits to room recycling (as compared to the recycling bins near the publication racks).

Autonomy

You're not clueless; you're not helpless; believe it or not, you are capable of operating a central publications kiosk. Why do you need to be spoon-fed publications week in and week out? Further, why should you be forced to endure the delivery of the same magazines regardless of whether or not you want them? In the real world, you cease receiving magazines when you deem them unworthy of your money and thus end your subscription. Normally, publications have no right whatsoever to distribute their literature on your personal space-why should things be any different at Stanford? Condoning a blanket door-to-door policy denies you the right to actively choose the magazines you want.

Inflated Circulation

Student publications often use circulation numbers as an indication of demand for their literature; hence, circulation size is used to justify increasing funding from student fees-thus costing you more money. Without door-to-door distribution, it becomes more difficult for publications to inflate their circulation-since they no longer distribute enough copies to serve every room in a residence. Therefore, student fees get spent on publications that garner genuine student interest and readership.