Collegiate Readership Program restarts
Free daily newspapers for Tech students are coming back this spring as the Collegiate Readership Program will have copies of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New York Times and the USA Today available on campus.
The program is being carried out by the Residence Hall Association (RHA) in partnership with the Student Government Association (SGA), the Georgia Tech Student Foundation (GTSF) and Auxiliary Services.
The Collegiate Readership Program delivers newspapers to over 400 campuses around the country. A trial of the program was run here during the Spring 2004 semester, with the USA Today and New York Times newspapers, but since then RHA has been seeking a permanent source of funding.
"We raised enough money for 900-1,000 newspapers to be distributed each day to students," said Tim Gallagher, RHA president.
Unlike the previous trial, where the newspapers were dropped into bins where anybody could pick one up, this time they will be dispensed only after students swipe their Buzzcard, to verify that only students are getting them. These secure dispensers will be located outside the two dining halls (Brittain and Woodruff) as well as the Student Center and at the GLC/Tenth and Home housing units.
At the end of the day unconsumed newspapers are picked up and recycled, with RHA only being charged for the number of newspapers that students take.
Because RHA is only charged for the newspapers that people take from the secured dispensers, empty open dispensers will be placed next to the secured dispensers so that when students are done reading the newspapers, they can return them to the open dispensers for others to use. The other reason for this is that the demand is expected to exceed the supply.
"During the last trial of the program, we had an eleven percent readership on campus," Gallagher said. Since there are approximately 11,000 undergraduate students on campus, at an eleven percent readership would be over 1,100 students which exceeds the 900-1,000 newspapers that are being supplied by the program.
According to Gallagher, the goals of the program are to promote the skills and habits needed for educated national and global citizenship, to encourage the use of papers and current affairs discussions in the classroom and to promote open and educated discussion on important issues.
To supplement the newspapers, USA Today and the New York Times offer case studies on a variety of topics to help integrate the newspapers and current events into courses.
This program will aid in bringing the newspapers into the classroom curriculum and allow professors to tailor their lectures according to the program provided by the newspapers. The New York Times and the USA Today will run workshops for professors so they are aware and able to use the tools that are provided by the program.
"I am currently working to get various academic departments on campus to use the papers and case studies in the classroom," Gallagher said.
The program is being funded jointly by RHA, SGA, GTSF and Auxiliary Services. The total cost of the program will be $10,000 to provide the 1,000 newspapers daily to campus.
