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Collegiate Readership Program hits campus
Trial period offers USA Today, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin State Journal for free
By Marlyn Fink
“If we see a great response from students and it’s [Readership Program] something that they like, we could get it in the segregated fee process or find another way to fund it” – UWM SA President Tyler Draheim
Last Monday, the Collegiate Readership Program, operated by USA Today, went into effect on campus, offering UW-Milwaukee students complimentary access to three prominent newspapers.
USA Today, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Wisconsin State Journal are all available each day at various locations throughout campus and are free of charge. The program sponsored by the UWM Student Association (SA) will last on campus for four weeks. During this period the newspapers will be free.
SA President Tyler Draheim initially heard about the program at a conference this past August and had seen other UW schools offering the program, and contacted USA Today to initiate it here. “I think it’s a great opportunity,” Draheim said. “If we see a great response from students and it’s something that they like, we could get it in the segregated fee process or find another way to fund it, and it could be something that goes on for years and years and promotes that civic engagement.”
USA Today manages the removal and recycling of the 2,500 papers each week during this initial program.
In 1997, Pennsylvania State University became the first college to enact this program when their president strived to create a program that enabled students to get involved with news outside of campus. Since its instant success, more than 500 colleges around the nation now employ the same program.
The mission of the program is “to enhance the learning environment on campus, by exposing students to the news in their living, learning, and community spaces… as well as promote civic literacy and global awareness on campus through students' daily exposure to the news.”
On Oct. 16, representatives will be on campus surveying students on their likes and dislikes of the program and, although funds are not high enough for it to go through this year, depending on the results, the Students First Center (SFC) will decide on the program’s future in years ahead at UWM.
If the program does proceed in the future, according to Draheim, the cost for one year would be $136,195.50, meaning that the cost per student a year would be $5.45 in the form of an allocable segregated fee.
“Any kind of extra information available to students where they don’t have to go off of campus and purchase it every day will spark a lot more discussion on issues outside of our campus,” Draheim said. “Just that discussion by itself and the debate that it might form is going to help with our University and increase more diversity in knowledge on national and international issues.”
If the program progresses, Draheim foresees having the papers in UWM color displays where students would have to swipe their ID to get a paper, promising strict student only access.
He believes this program will bring students another perspective and the response to it will be very positive.
“I just want to encourage students to get out there and try it out and let us know how you feel, so we can really make the judgment on whether this is something students want, it’s completely in their hands.”
> Comments
I hope you aren't a finance or math major!!! on Oct 01, 2008 at 11:37 AM:
I have no clue where you got $300,000! The article says it would cost just over $130,000 for the year which is less than $2.75 per student each semester. That is a small price that I am willing to pay in for this kind of program.
I'm glad that SA is finally starting to experiment with some new programs. Especially one like this that give us some other on campus news options besides the Post. Now, I can grab a Journal in between classes and find out what is going on outside of our university.
This readership program is not going to break the bank and I am much more willing to put an additional $5.50 each year to this rather than to some of the other services that we pay for!
Good idea, great program, I hope SA will keep this going!
Watch your pocketbooks on Oct 01, 2008 at 08:31 AM:
It's a great program until it's no longer free after a couple weeks. Then student tuition will have to go up to pay for it if we want to keep it around. With the internet, why should we raise our tuition and pay $300,000 to keep this around. Not very environmentally friendly.