[wsfull]

If the cost to students attending universities that have adequate subscriptions is small -- previously, commenters suggested this portion of their tuition amounted to only a small annual fee -- then what would be the reasons the publishers would not offer individual subscriptions at similar cost to the public? As any serious student knows, the "a la carte" prices are absurd -- how successful have they been with this idea?

One silly idea deserves another:

Generally, journals manage their subscriptions through filtering on IP address ranges.

Imagine a customer-ISP agreement that had an option whereby a subscriber could "opt in" to academic journals for a few extra dollars per month.

These subscribers might then be assigned addresses in certain designated ranges by their ISP.