Newspaper Readership Going Strong
Dec. 7, 2000
University Park, Pa. — Three years ago, at the suggestion of President Graham Spanier, Penn State began providing free newspapers — The New York Times, USA Today and a local newspaper — to students living in campus residence halls at University Park and eight other campuses. What was once an experiment is now the largest newspaper readership program at any university in the nation.

The expanded Newspaper Readership Program, instituted this fall, offers free newspapers to all students living both on and off-campus, and is funded by student tuition. As a result, more than 11,900 newspapers are read each day by students system wide.

"The purpose of the program is to help students develop a more complete understanding of the world they live in and enhance their learning environment," says Bill Asbury, vice president for student affairs and chair of the Newspaper Readership Program Steering Committee.

Students have access to more than 100 newspaper dispensing machines at 20 Penn State campuses with undergraduate programs. Using their regular student ID card to open the machines, students can pick up a free copy of The New York Times, USA Today and a daily paper from the local community. Use of the ID card in the newspaper machines will not debit the students card. Students at the University Park campus continue to have free access to The Daily Collegian.

Numbers to date indicate that, on a daily basis, more than 2,290 University Park students are reading The New York Times and more than 3,160 students are reading USA Today. At Penn State’s other campus locations, students are reading a total of more than 2,260 copies of The New York Times and USA Today.

The local papers are also popular with students. Every day, more than 250 students at Penn State Erie read the Erie Times, more than 120 students at Penn State Harrisburg read the Patriot News, more than 180 students at Penn State Abington read the Philadelphia Inquirer and more that 1,890 students at University Park read the Centre Daily Times.

Asbury expects the findings of the spring semester Pulse Survey of student attitudes and activities to show an increased use of newspapers in the curriculum — a result of the expanded Newspaper Readership Program. "One of the concerns expressed by some faculty before the expansion to all students was the limitation of access to students living off-campus. This problem has been solved with the new approach."

Doug Anderson, dean of the College of Communications, says students and faculty in the college are among the beneficiaries of the innovative program.  "The Newspaper Readership Program greatly enhances our classes
because it visibly and subtly reinforces the importance of daily reading,
because access is made easy--we have a rack in Carnegie Building--and
because it is cost efficient. That's a winning combination." Several journalism classes require students to read one, and preferably multiple, newspapers each day.  "Reading newspapers is a natural supplement to reading textbooks in our classes," says Anderson.

According to Asbury, there are added benefits to Penn State as a result of the relationship with the newspapers. "The collaboration between Penn State and the newspaper partners has provided majors speakers for campus events, supported faculty research and created new student scholarships."

Newspapers participating in the expanded program include: The New York Times, USA Today, Centre Daily Times, Harrisburg Patriot News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Altoona Mirror, Beaver County Times, Erie Times, Reading Times, DuBois Courier-Express, Uniontown Herald Standard, Hazleton Standard Speaker, Allentown Morning Call, Waynesboro Record Herald, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Valley News Dispatch, Pottsville Republican and Evening Herald, The Sharon Herald, Wilkes-Barre Citizen's Voice, Scranton Times and The York Daily Record.

Details on participating newspapers, a list of committee members and information on the history of the program is available on-line at http://www.psu.edu/ur/newspaper/.

Contact: Amy Neil, Department of Public Information, at (814) 865-7517 or e-mail .