Executive Council considers USA Today partnership
Amid its usual weekly updates, the USU Student Association Executive Council received a presentation from USA Today on Tuesday.
Representatives Kate Almanza and Shay Curtis, who work for USA Today’s Collegiate Readership Program, presented to the council. The organization places its newspaper on college campuses along with two other papers of the institution’s choice. If it chooses to participate, USU would be charged for newspapers picked up instead of the whole bundle, and the papers would be at a discounted education rate.
“We bring these papers to your college campus,” Almanza said. “It’s designed to promote global engagement and media literacy.”
Part of the presentation asked members of the executive council if and why they thought reading the newspapers was important.
“There’s a lot that affects us that we don’t realize,” USU/SA President Doug Fiefia said. “There’s little things that affect the way we do things.”
Charley Riddle, Athletics and Campus Recreation vice president, said it’s important to be informed on the go.
“The world’s bigger than Cache Valley,” said Matt Anderson, senate pro tempore and College of Humanities and Social Sciences senator.
Curtis said the program was implemented at the University of Utah, and of the 400 campuses participating in the program, Utah ranks in the top three with readership numbers.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Brittney Garbrick, Graduate Studies senator. “I was approached from the New York Times … I really like the opportunity. I think students especially on this campus need a little bit more news. If it’s there in the TSC so they can grab one and go, even if they just read a couple articles a day.”
The collegiate readership program started in 1992 at Pennsylvania State University. Student leaders felt their campus was living in a bubble and knew informed students should go hand-in-hand with education.
Since then, 400 campuses have implemented the program.
“Part of the whole purpose is to get students reading,” Almanza said. “To prepare to be global citizens by being informed citizens, you’ll become much more of a global powerhouse.”
The program would not come with online access.
Several students said they read their news online, whether it’s from a news website or a form of social media.
Matt Buchanan said he reads the news on Reddit and KSL, AJ Al-Bitar reads Reddit and SportsCenter and Ashley Allen likes news links on her Twitter feed.
Before the executive council makes a decision, it requested specific numbers about readers and usership.
Twitter: @daniellekmanley