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For years, many of my Stanford colleagues and I have depended on ClariNet for important news from almost any part of the world that is unavailable in mainstream U.S. news media. ClariNet news feeds have suddenly and without prior notice disappeared from ITSS's offerings that are available from NNTP.stanford.edu, and been replaced by the usual Usenet chatter and other trivia. It is unclear why ITSS has decided to drop this service, but it would seem shortsighted. One would expect unfiltered news that reflects the most important happenings around the world would be a high priority for any university to make available to its internal constituencies. Out of curiosity I contacted the people at ClariNet. They said they actually do not know why Stanford dropped this service. But they did say Stanford's price was $475 a month, and they are also willing to provide a web-based version and reader (along with the UseNet version) for that price. An expenditure of $5,700 per year does not seem too high a cost for a world-class university to keep its students, faculty and others associated with the university well informed about the world. Some of ClariNet's best offerings are in-depth worldwide news coverage about education, philanthropy, science, health, engineering, physics and economics, for example, that you do no find by reading newspapers or watching television. I hope ITSS' decision can be reconsidered by restoring this important educational and research tool in Newsgroups available through SUNet.
SPYROS ANDREOPOULOS Director Emeritus Medical Center Office of Communication and Public Affairs
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Stanford Report, October 8, 2003
