Leading national newspapers such as USA Today and The New York Times could be delivered to campus at a discounted price if a student senator's efforts succeed.
Emily Shuki, a sophomore journalism major and East Green senator, said she hopes to bring USA Today's Collegiate Readership Program to campus with the support of Student Senate. The program offers national newspapers to students at a discount rate.
The senate is exploring the creation of an optional programming fee, which would fund the newspaper program among other things. Students who pay the fee would receive three different newspapers five days a week.
Student Senate Treasurer Will Wemer said he expects a yearly $7.75 of each student's programming fee would cover the newspaper program. In contrast, a yearlong subscription to USA Today costs $164 for one year.
The programming fee needs approval from the Board of Trustees.
Students who pay the optional fee would be allowed to pick up the papers at a box. Students would swipe their ID cards in the box, although Shuki said senate needs to work with the Office of Information Technology to see if this is plausible.
Shuki said she would like the papers to be offered on the first and fourth floors of Baker University Center, in dining halls and in the lobbies of the Scripps school and the College of Business.
Shuki said she wants to bring the program here because she is disappointed that such a highly ranked journalism school doesn't offer this type of service.
Having this program would make (the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism) so much better
she said.
Newspapers that Shuki said would likely be offered are The New York Times, The Columbus Dispatch and USA Today. After a four-week free trial to gauge interest, USA Today and Student Senate would send students a survey to see which newspapers they would like to be offered.
The 11-year-old program started at Pennsylvania State University and is now offered on more than 400 college campuses nationwide, according to its Web site.
USA Today maintains and customizes the newsstands, delivers the papers five days a week, promotes the program on campus and runs recycling services. It tailors the delivery schedule of the papers around school breaks, and the program will most likely not be delivered during the summer. It's hard to measure how much this would cost students, said Kate Pesha, manager of Higher Education Programs at USA Toay. The program decides the cost after the four-week trial, and it isn't based on subscription but rather how many copies of each of paper are picked up, Pesha said.
Some business classes require students to subscribe to The Wall Street Journal and pay for it out of their own pocket. Students could use the Money section of USA Today instead, Pesha said.
Although Shuki hopes to have a trial run next fall, funding is an obstacle of bringing the program to OU. Student Senate is working with OU to find a feasible way to fund it.
As an alternative to the waivable programming fee, senate is considering working with the Provost's and Student Affairs' offices and the journalism and business schools to see if each department would develop a pool of funding to bring the program to OU. USA Today representatives suggested this option to senate because they have seen this work at other schools, Shuki said.
Any decisions regarding how to fund the program would be dependent on what the waivable fee committee decides, she said.
The New York Times is delivered five days a week to the lobbies in the Read Johnson Scholars Complex for the residents. This program is funded through an East Green budget via the Resident Director fund.
All the newspapers available through the program are available at Alden Library.
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