Students walking around campus with a frown for the past few weeks might be missing their daily dose of real life courtesy of free newspapers.
The USA Today Educational Readership program sponsored by the Residence Hall Association and the Office of Residence Life ended on Nov. 19. The program was responsible for providing newspapers to students at no cost in four high-traffic areas on campus.
USA Today, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times were the four publications available daily to students in the lobbies of Griesedieck Hall, Marchetti West, Marguerite Hall and Reinert Hall.
The program began a pilot period last February. It cost the two Saint Louis University organizations $10,000 a semester.
Now, the Office of Residence Life has redistributed funds and decided not to fund their half of the program, according to RHA President Mary Elizabeth Curtice.
The future of the program is still up in the air. RHA is searching for a temporary solution to fund the program. But Curtice did not rule out the permanent solution as ending the program completely.
Currently, RHA is trying to find another organization to help fund the program or justification for RHA fronting the entirety of the bill.
“RHA is willing to fund our half and we’re petitioning the Great Issues Committee to pay the other half,” Curtice said. “I hope that will work as it seems the most obvious choice to us,” she said referring to the educational aspect of the program.
Curtice did point out the one downside of RHA funding the entire program alone: the cost. “There’s the sheer question of what else can we do with $20,000,” she said. “If it’s the best way to spend the money, then we’re more than willing to do it.”
Curtice said that the Readership Program and the Billiken Blockbuster Cinema, the SLU movie station on cable channel 22, are probably the two RHA programs that students utilize the most.
Representatives for the Readership program are eager to continue the program. “We’d love it if you guys could continue into next semester,” said Lin Courtois, the Account Manager for USA Today.
The way the program is set up, according to Courtois, it is tailored to the needs of each university. “SLU had only $10,000 to spend and that’s what we set the program for,” she said. “We can always tailor and tweak it to work with how much the University wants to spend.”
Courtois pointed out that the cost could easily be split between the student body as a whole.
“When everyone pays, it ends up being something like $10 a student,” she said.
Courtois highlighted that the point of the program is the educational aspect.
“It’s great for business students that might need a copy of Wall Street Journal for one of their classes,” she said.
A Web site has been formed for the educational advancement of the program.
“It’s a link especially for the student educations service,” she said. “It is really beneficial for the instructors.”
Students and professors alike can visit the Web site at usatoday.com.
“We’re just excited to be on campus,” Courtois said.
“When we’re not there, we hope that students will miss it. It should be interesting to see the students’ curiosity if it’s not here in the spring,” she added.
And according to Curtice, students are missing the papers. “We’ve received several e-mails already from students that have noticed the end of the program,” she said.
Students with an opinion about the recent end of the Readership
