Photo by: Michael Krebsbach
Free newspapers are available for students daily from locations on campus as part of the USA Today Readership Program.
USA Today supplies DU with newspapers daily in the designated holders in all residence halls, academic buildings and the northern and southern ends of the Driscoll Student Center. Students have the choice of the Denver Post, New York Times, or USA Today. The Daniels College of Business is provided with the Financial Times.
The papers are paid for through the mandatory student activity fee, which was $100 for this school year. According to the Undergraduate Student Senate Web site, $2 of this fee is allocated for the readership program.
DU started the program in the 2005-2006 school year, said director of student activities Carl Johnson.
Since the start of the program, said Johnson, students have been much more engaged in world affairs.
“Students are aware of a problem and want to do something about it.” he said, “We’ve seen greater understanding and greater activism.”
As part of the program, professors can incorporate current affairs into lesson plans and class lectures with USA Today online resources.
Newspapers are important additives to the classroom because they are timely, said Johnson. Textbooks and scholarly articles are less up-to-the-minute.
“Newspapers tell us what’s happening right now, what’s the commentary on it currently,” said Johnson. “With newspapers you have Barack Obama did this yesterday, here’s what we think of it today.”
Johnson said he hasn’t received any negative feedback since DU started the program. The only problem has been at times not having enough papers, said Johnson.
The budgeting for the program is tight, and DU only pays for the number of papers students use, he said.
USA Today is responsible for the removal of unwanted papers, and each morning they pick up leftover papers and recycle them.
The student government was originally the impetus of the program, when senators spoke to USA Today representatives at a conference, said Johnson.
USA Today started the program at Penn State University in 1997, and today distributes newspapers to nearly 500 campuses across the country daily.
Heidi Zimmerman, director of communications at USA Today, said newspapers are important because they provide students civic education and an alternative to standard textbook learning.
“Newspapers provide the knowledge necessary to generate action. Newspapers provide an opportunity for students to become better educated on timely social and political issues., she said. “Students are given an opportunity to step outside of the static textbook information and explore the ever-changing current issues that develop as they occur.”
The aim of the program is to better students’ world knowledge and engagement through the convenience of free papers, said Zimmerman.
“The goal of the Collegiate Readership Program is to enhance students’ global awareness and civic engagement through helping them develop a habit of news readership. And, bottom line, convenience continues to be the key to do so; when the newspapers are made available to students, they will read,” said Zimmerman.
