Readership program relaunches

Seventy-seven copies of The New York Times remained in Woodburn Hall's lobby depository at 3:45 p.m. Monday.\nWell past the point of breaking news, these papers, still crisply folded, linger as sure fodder for the recycling bin or garbage can. Like these leftover issues, and the 62 remaining copies of USA Today beside them, the fate of the Student Newspaper Readership Program waits patiently for the response of the IU community: Will it be realized or will it be canned?\n"So far, it has been really well-received," said Alex Shortle, president of the IU Student Association, the organization that sponsored the campus reading initiative and spearheaded efforts to bring the program to IU.\nShortle said similar monthlong pilots have failed in recent years, but the current project has the advantage of funding provided by IU student fees approved by a Committee Fee Review.\n"(In order to obtain CFR funding), a program must benefit all students, and this is in fact open to everybody," said Shortle, pointing out that newsstands have been placed in convenient spots around campus -- including Woodburn Hall, Ballantine Hall, the Indiana Memorial Union, dorms and dining halls -- to facilitate disbursement of the 1,600 newspapers daily.\nStill, many complain the newspaper program doesn't have enough copies for all students -- even though they are all forced to help pay for it.\n"It is unusual for a university to bring in a corporate product to compete with a student produced product," said David Adams, publisher of and adviser to the Indiana Daily Student. "The main concern is that you have student fees going to support something that hurts a student lab that doesn't take any University money."\nOther colleges and universities have implemented this program, always eventually raising the cost to students to $10 per semester, Adams said. \nAdams also said students should be reading quality, national newspapers, but he warned that bringing newspapers with national advertising will "eventually hurt the IDS business model."\nOne of Shortle's concerns is IU students remain unaware of their complimentary and unlimited access to The New York Times and USA Today. While these nationwide publications fetch in upwards of $1 per issue, they are available daily to IU students for $1 per semester through a special projects fee included in each semester's bursar bill. Students can obtain these free copies only by swiping their Campus Access card. Swiping the card incurs no charges. \n"These papers are not for the general public -- we're doing this to develop good newspaper reading habits and to encourage student engagement on a larger scale outside of their community and this campus," said Shortle.\nThe verdict is still out. One hundred copies of both newspapers are distributed daily to each of the various depositories. At 4 p.m. Monday in the Market at the IMU, 40 copies of The New York Times and 43 copies of USA Today sat untouched in their boxes. Only 34 Times and 12 USA Todays remained in the depository at Ballantine's main entrance at roughly the same time.\n"I normally get my paper on the way to breakfast, but if you don't get a copy early enough, they're usually gone by midday," said William Howard, an IU junior majoring in political science.\nHoward's testimony sounds an optimistic tone for the future of the Student Newspaper Readership Program, but IUSA will continue to monitor the success of the program throughout the year. Hailing from the United Kingdom, Howard prefers The New York Times for what he considers better coverage of international and political issues. Shortle hopes avid readers like Howard spread the word and, more importantly, share their papers.\n"Studies show that four to five people, on average, read the same (copy of a) newspaper so we're working to get racks where students can put their used copies," Shortle said.\nThe initiatives of The New York Times and USA Today aim to increase numbers of actual hard copy readers. At IU, the opportunity to become a regular consumer of printed news at little cost abounds. Whether students choose to get the ink on their fingers remains to be seen. \nJournalism professor Jon Dilts said he thinks the campus readership program can benefit students if they could be turned on to the worth of such resources. He welcomes the ready access to nearly free newspapers, but admits daily classroom use of these publications in print is questionable in the midst of increasing technological potential. \n"If I were to ask students to read The New York Times (for class), I would tell them to go online where the publication is more up-to-date and where there are quick and easy links to related sources," Dilts said.\n-- City & State Editor Sam Nissen contributed to this report.