By Nicole Majewski
Two empty newspaper racks sit silently near the Campbell Student Union Information Desk, waiting to be filled with the latest news.
The racks are part of the USA Today Collegiate Readership Program that was piloted at Buffalo State College for fourweeks this fall. Cami Nowe, the USA Today CollegiatePrograms’ national education manager said the programtook place at BSC from Sept. 26 to Oct. 21 with standsin the Campbell Student Union and in nine residencehalls including: Porter Hall Perry Hall Neumann Hall North WingTower I, II, III and IV Moore Complex
“We’re using just a section of campus to get an idea if this is something that students want,” Nowe said.
She said USA Today plans to speak with Associate Vice President of Residence Life Timothy Ecklund and United Student Government President Matt Levin-Stankevich sometime in the near future about the results of surveys that were conducted during the program and the number of newspapers that were taken during its duration.
An average of 449 newspapers were taken each day. Data also showed that 8,986 papers were taken throughout the Readership Program, and 58 percent of those were copies of USA Today and 42 percent were copies of another offering of the program, the New York Times, according to program data.
“It’s really flexible, and we start the pilot program to collect student feedback regarding having newspapers available on campus and to help us determine how much it will cost,” Nowe said.
She said there is a possibility for expanding the program into BSC’s academic buildings if a full-scale readership program is implemented, but this will depend on funding and what interests BSC has.
“During our pilot our goal is just to get the newspaper in the hands of students to develop a readership,” she said.
If BSC were to adopt the Collegiate Readership Program, it would join 370 campuses nationwide, including 12 State University of New York colleges like:University at BuffaloGeneseoCornellStony Brook
Other area schools also participate in the program including:
St. Bonaventure University
Medaille College
Hilbert College
Nowe said the program accommodates the needs of each college hosting it, specifically with the different newspapers that are offered and the number of papers that are supplied. The display racks and cases can also be customized with each college’s logo.
“We provide whatever papers they would like, we make sure we’re meeting the demands of students,” she said. “If there’s a set budget, we work with it. However,Levin-Stankevich raised concerns about the cost of the program and the possibility of BSC being able to support it.
Nowe said the price of the program varies with the number ofpapers a campus gets. She said it ends up costing most schools $3 to $5 per student for one semester. In this kind of pricing, USA Today would be discounted to 35 cents per copy, from the regular newsstand price of 75 cents and the New York Times would be discounted to 40 cents per copy, compared to the regular price of$1.
Levin-Stankevich said this program is not cheap, though, because its yearly costs would be in the thousands of dollars, and BSC would have to offset this cost to make it free to the students.
“I don’t know what the future (of the program) will be if USG was asked to fully support it. I don’t think we’d financially be able to,” he said.
He said that the outcome is something he’d like to see, but keeping costs down is a priority.
“We definitely want to see students reading more,” he said. “We just want to make sure the benefits outweigh the costs.”
|
