The Orbis

Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: News/Features

The Collegiate Readership Program, sponsored by USA Today, partners with universities to provide daily access to national newspapers on campus. Over 270 colleges across the country are involved, including six of the top 20 universities as ranked by U.S. News & World Report. Vanderbilt Student Government President Cara Bilotta hopes to include Vanderbilt among these numbers this year.

According to the fall 2007 Vanderbilt Hustler/Vanderbilt Student Government poll, nearly 80 percent of students expressed interest in reading a national newspaper if it was made available on campus. The CRP, based on student interest, would most likely bring The New York Times and USA Today to campus.

Student Services and Technology Committee co-chairs Fabiani Duarte and Melissa Zhu recently conducted preliminary research on the CRP by investigating the effectiveness of the program at other universities. Based on these initial results, Duarte affirms the benefits of the program.

"Since we already have a culture of readers, we can help educate them about world issues. The possibilities are endless in how (the newspapers) can be implemented in the classroom," he said. He added having free access to daily national newspapers is an attractive selling point for prospective students.

In theory, the idea of bringing daily national news to campus is a brilliant one. However, there are several factors to consider before endorsing the CRP, the most significant of which is funding. Program costs would include daily distribution expenses, the installation of bins and card readers and the recycling of used paper. Syracuse University spends $90,000 to $100,000 yearly, and George Washington University reserves $53,000 for the CRP. While VSG aims for a significantly lower budget than the two aforementioned schools, the cost undeniably remains a difficult issue to justify.

Student activity fees should not be allocated for the maintenance of this program. The purpose of AcFee is to provide financial support to student organizations, and national newspapers do not fall in this category. Instead, VSG should look to different departments and offices within the university. Duarte and Zhu's research found most schools handle funding of the CRP through a collaboration of groups, like the dean of students, housing and student government.

Research indicates campuses with CRP have seen an increase in students' civic engagement and knowledge of current events. Whether the Vanderbilt community will show similar learning outcomes will be a key method of assessing the CRP's success. Given the university's reputation of political apathy, imagining a dramatic change in students' dispositions towards international affairs is difficult, but such an effect would bode well for student activist organizations struggling to retain membership. Student enthusiasm for the program is the only valid reason to sustain the CRP. Will students care enough to pick up a paper? Will they become actively engaged in the news? Will the influx of information invoke a heightened sense of awareness of world issues?

Continued...

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