Fredonia students have new morning habit

Students at SUNY Fredonia are taking full advantage of their opportunity to peruse the news.
 
The USA Today Collegiate Readership Program has entered its first full semester at SUNY Fredonia.  Three hundred free copies of USA Today are divided daily between Fenton Hall, McEwen Hall and the Williams Center for use by the campus community. From early in the morning to late in the day, students and even staff are picking them up.
 
Judging by the empty kiosks and noses of students deep in newspapers, the program appears to be a success. 
 
“I’m delighted they've taken to it so enthusiastically,” said Dr. David Herman, vice president of student affairs.  “It’s good to get students in the habit of reading the newspaper.”  The popularity of the program has caused the university to consider raising the number of copies available.
 
Established in 1999 at Penn State, the USA Today Collegiate Readership Program has spread to nearly 400 colleges and universities across the country, including nine other SUNY schools.  The initiative was developed “with the promise that the accessibility of a selection of daily newspapers on campus would entice students to read the news, consider varying opinions, become civically engaged and think critically about issues that impact them,” according to USA Today Vice President of Education Programs Diane Barrett. 
 
SUNY Fredonia introduced the program during a six-week test period midway through last semester. After adjusting drop-off points and increasing the paper volume, the project was fully implemented in January at the start of the spring session. 
 
Under the existing agreement, SUNY Fredonia pays thirty-five cents per paper – a bill of roughly $5,000 annually – and students, faculty and staff members are allowed to take copies for free.  The university is not charged for papers that are not taken from the kiosks.  The program is suspended when classes are not in session.
 
Newspaper users are also asked to pass along their used copies to others who have not read the day’s news.
 
The value of the program, Dr. Herman noted, can be measured whenever someone walks through the Fenton Hall lobby or the ground floor of McEwen Hall and sees a dozen or more students absorbed in the daily paper.  “As long as the budget allows, we’re going to continue the program,” Dr. Herman said.  
 
Dr. Jeanette McVicker, coordinator of the SUNY Fredonia Journalism minor, is pleased by the USA Today College Readership Program and would like to see the project taken even a step further by the university.  “I think that it is a wonderful cooperation that we have established with USA Today," Dr. McVicker said.  She added that she'd like to see the campus distribute free local papers as well as the New York Times as well. “I think that it should not be limited to this paper," she said.