I’d be very interested in the results of the Government 30: “Introduction to American Government” survey distributed earlier this semester by Assistant Professor of Government Andrea L. Campbell. Among other things, the poll asks for students’ primary source of news and information. For those of us in Harvard housing, I have a funny feeling that it isn’t television.

Of course, this is despite the fact that just about everyone I know has at least one television in his or her suite. But without cable access, the programming is limited.

Now, I won’t pretend that all Harvard students desire from the box is news and information. The TV’s primary role is as a source of diversion; but is there really anything wrong with that? Intramural sports are not academic, and they’re not in any danger of being eliminated. The Grille is a popular source of diversion and it’s not about to be shut down—oops, bad example.

Regardless, students should have access to cable television programming and if nothing else, the option for its installment.

In its purest form, television is a form of communication—a connection between people, as informative as any telephone conversation one will have. It keeps us in touch with what every other college student is watching and what every other college student knows.

The denial of this contact divorces Harvard students from the experiences and events that every other citizen has witnessed or heard about, and leaves on a book-smart island.

With the amount of money my Crimson Caller friends rake in each night, I know it isn’t the costs that are impeding installation.

And with the wiring the university has done in the past decade, it can’t be that difficult to slip some fiber-optic wires in with the other cables already there.