Free newspaper program returns for year

The Collegiate Readership Program has supplied Tech with free-to-take newspapers off and on since its trial run in the spring of 2004. For this school year, RHA and SGA have secured funding for the program to continue for the entire 2007-08 school year.

"[The program] provides newspapers to the student body and to campus, while also providing online content such as case studies and resources that can be used by individual students or in the classrooms," said Tim Gallagher, Residence Hall Association (RHA) president.

As in the past, the newspapers available are the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), the New York Times and USA Today. Students can obtain a copy by swiping their Buzzcard at any of the distribution locations. The Buzzcard is only used to restrict access to Tech students; the student's account is not charged anything.

The program is managed by USA Today, who distributes, picks up and recycles the newspapers.

While the free newspapers are a well-known benefit of the program, one of the lesser-known perks is the online resources provided by the participating newspapers.

"USA Today has so many resources; they have, for example, online categories where professors write case studies, topics for discussion, and questions. It is a way to facilitate discussions and bring current events into the classrooms." Gallagher said.

"They also offer a lot of great resources for things like Freshman Experience programs such as GT 1000."

Gallagher said the response from departments like LCC and management has been good, but as yet the online resources are being under utilized.

"It is something that USA Today and the New York Times will come in and do training programs on, and those programs are coming," Gallagher said.

According to Gallagher, the three newspapers distributed through the program were chosen by a survey.

"After we had a test run of the papers on campus in 2004 we sent out a survey. The students ranked the New York Times as their first choice, USA Today as number two, AJC as number three, and the Wall Street Journal as number four," Gallagher said.

The Wall Street Journal is not available to Tech students, as they do not participate in the Collegiate Readership Program, instead maintaining their own program.

Nationwide, the program offers over 300 publications, but most are local and cannot be delivered to Atlanta.

"The papers such as the AJC that are for sale on campus are not connected to the Collegiate Readership Program. In fact, if we were to put a free bin up near where the AJC sells their papers, they would remove the pay-bin from the area," Gallagher said.

Through the program, the cost paid by RHA and SGA is a reduced academic rate, and they are billed for each copy picked up by a student, not each copy delivered to campus.

Last year, RHA and SGA were joined by the Georgia Tech Student Foundation, Auxiliary Services and Buzzfunds in funding the program.

"Credit needs to be given to [those organizations], as without them we wouldn't be here this year," Gallagher said.

"While we do have a circulation of about 1200-1300 papers per day, we don't always pay for every single one," Gallagher said.

Gallagher said that no additional newspapers will be added to the program anytime soon; the goal at this point is to expand it by increasing the number of distribution points around campus and the number of newspapers available each day.

He said the first target location is the North Avenue Apartments, followed by the Management building and Junior's.

"In order to add more distribution points, we need to raise more money for this year, because if we don't increase the number of papers on campus, we could end up frustrating students with empty bins." Gallagher said.

Currently there are bins with newspapers at the Student Center at the front entrance near the Campanile, at Woodruff Dining Hall, at Brittain Dining Hall and at the Graduate Living Center/10th and Home Apartments.

According to Gallagher, feedback from students is critical in making sure the program is effective and serves the student body.

"Now that we have shown that there is student interest in getting the papers, we just need to show that there is an interest for the other services, too. What we hear from students is really the most important part, so we need to hear from them: good things, bad things, suggestions on what we can improve."