After a successful two-week pilot program and a survey of how students reacted to having the paper, Student Government Association President Tim Carr said the national newspaper USA Today, which was started by USD alumni Al Neuharth, will be at USD for the 2010-2011 academic year.
“I had been advocating for this for over a year. If memory serves me correctly, the vote to approve funding for the program was unanimous,” Carr said. “Last year’s senate and administration deserve credit for allowing it to be added to our SGA budget request.”
Carr said the General Activity Fee Committee recently approved allocating the amount of money that SGA requested for the year, which included the cost of the newspaper. The program will cost $4,858.53 to provide papers throughout the 2010-2011 academic year, coming from the general fund of SGA’s budget, Carr said.
Former SGA member and Volante Opinion Editor Taylor Poro, who helped bring the newspaper to the campus, said the money used for the papers was originally going to go into a discretionary fund for SGA but some argued that it would then be used for things that SGA
didn’t need.
“So I said, ‘Well, we have this money, using it won’t increase the fees and since we were talking about bringing back the papers anyway and the major sticking point was the money, why not just use that?’” Poro said.
USD will receive 75 newspapers each day, Monday through Friday, except holidays and they will be distributed in the Muenster University Center at the east and west entrances, Carr said.
Although he is not opposed to the idea, Carr said due to the limited budget, SGA will not be able to bring in any other newspapers for the student body next year.
Carr said he chose bringing USA Today to the school because of the roots it has with the school and its reputation.
“No other paper has a connection to the USD campus like USA Today.
The paper’s founder, Al Neuharth, is one of our most notable alumni,” Carr said. “I think it’s important for USD to provide a reputable newspaper with roots at our university.”
The survey conducted at the end of the two-week pilot program showed that 92 percent of students that took the survey said they would pick up a newspaper at least once a week if they were available on campus and 79 percent said they believe that newspapers ranged from important to extremely important to their education.
“This will help keep students informed of current events nationally and internationally,” Carr said.
Carr said he has heard nothing but positive comments about bringing the paper back.
“The trial program that was conducted in March was wildly popular, as evidenced by the statistics,” Carr said.
Poro said having a newspaper like USA Today is important to students because it will expose them to more news than they may be used to seeing.
“There’s a lot that you can get online, but it seems like you just go towards what you want to see. I mainly read the politics stuff; I may not read about global affairs or other things. I’m sure that’s the same way with other people,” Poro said. “At least here there is an opportunity if you have it and you’re looking at it, you might read something that you would not read normally.”
Contemporary Media and Journalism graduate instructor Jason Zenor said bringing in a national newspaper will be beneficial to students.
“Any attempt to have students be more engaged with political affairs and what’s going on outside this small world we have here at USD is a good thing,” Zenor said.
By having free copies of the paper, Zenor said students may be more inclined to read it.
“From what I’ve seen, when you’re sitting around the student lounge and
there’s papers laying around, people usually pick them up and read them,” Zenor said. “Any time you can remove the barrier between students and the newspaper, they’re more likely to read it.”
Carr said he has high hopes for the impact USA Today will make on the student body and USD as a whole.
“I hope it increases knowledge of national and international events and promotes a healthy dialogue on key issues facing our nation and world,” Carr said. “The program will also serve to remind those who visit our campus of our institution’s reputation for excellence.”
Reach reporter Chris Jessen at Chris.Jessen@usd.edu.
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