Newspaper program helps campus
Kalli Martin
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Features
The newspapers appear every morning like clockwork, but how and why seems to be a mystery.
The Collegiate Readership Program is not something that will sound familiar to many students and faculty, but it is what provides the newspapers to the St. Ambrose campus every day.
The Collegiate Readership Program offers newspapers to college campuses nationwide. The program was started at Pennsylvania State University in 1997 and has spread to various colleges around the country over the years. It is organized by USA Today and it offers a college's choice of a local and regional paper along with USA Today.
The program at St. Ambrose began in the 2001-2002 school year. A representative from USA Today came to campus and worked with the Student Government Association and Student Activities to help create a pilot program.
"We did the pilot for maybe a month or so and that helped us determine our consumption rate," Veronica Riepe, Director of Student Activities, said. "We looked at how many people were picking up papers and therefore how many papers we would need if we launched a program."
The pilot program, funded by SGA, showed a high enough consumption rate on campus that a full program was instituted the following school year. The newspapers included USA Today, The Chicago Tribune (later switched to The New York Times), and the Quad City Times.
The first year of the full program was not funded by the university but mainly by SGA. USA Today said that $18,000 was what SAU needed for a full program, but the money was not available at the time.
"We were out of our budget cycle," Riepe said. "You request new money in the fall of the year and it is approved in July or August. It was April, so there was no way we were going to get money for another year but students really liked it so we decided to launch a program with $6,500 and we kind of borrowed money from places. SGA, CAB and Student Activities contributed so at least we could run the program."
This limited first year was highly dependent on students sharing newspapers but the program was up and running. The university granted full funding for the program the following year and the program is currently running on a $15,000 budget. The money is taken out of the tuition that students pay each year.
The Collegiate Readership Program is not something that will sound familiar to many students and faculty, but it is what provides the newspapers to the St. Ambrose campus every day.
The Collegiate Readership Program offers newspapers to college campuses nationwide. The program was started at Pennsylvania State University in 1997 and has spread to various colleges around the country over the years. It is organized by USA Today and it offers a college's choice of a local and regional paper along with USA Today.
The program at St. Ambrose began in the 2001-2002 school year. A representative from USA Today came to campus and worked with the Student Government Association and Student Activities to help create a pilot program.
"We did the pilot for maybe a month or so and that helped us determine our consumption rate," Veronica Riepe, Director of Student Activities, said. "We looked at how many people were picking up papers and therefore how many papers we would need if we launched a program."
The pilot program, funded by SGA, showed a high enough consumption rate on campus that a full program was instituted the following school year. The newspapers included USA Today, The Chicago Tribune (later switched to The New York Times), and the Quad City Times.
The first year of the full program was not funded by the university but mainly by SGA. USA Today said that $18,000 was what SAU needed for a full program, but the money was not available at the time.
"We were out of our budget cycle," Riepe said. "You request new money in the fall of the year and it is approved in July or August. It was April, so there was no way we were going to get money for another year but students really liked it so we decided to launch a program with $6,500 and we kind of borrowed money from places. SGA, CAB and Student Activities contributed so at least we could run the program."
This limited first year was highly dependent on students sharing newspapers but the program was up and running. The university granted full funding for the program the following year and the program is currently running on a $15,000 budget. The money is taken out of the tuition that students pay each year.
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