Possible Return of College Readership Program

By Alex Tate
Rotunda ReporterAt the SGA meeting on Tues., Jan. 19, 2010, Randy Jones, a New York Times representative came to try and bring back the Collegiate Readership Program to Longwood University. The Collegiate Readership Program, made up of The New York Times and USA Today, is a university program to build readership habits among college students.

SGA Senator Brian Mandeville is spearheading this endeavor to bring back the readership program. Mandeville said, ".Randy was here to speak with a couple of the professors who use the [news] papers in their classrooms and I met with him because I have been working for him for a couple of years and have never actually met the guy. I told him that there was an SGA meeting that was occurring right then, so we rushed over [to Lankford Student Union] and they let him speak, and he just kind of talked about some of the benefits from the program that maybe we weren't aware of."

SGA President Cameron Patterson said, "Although the representative was unable to go into specific detail, he did say that the New York Times could offer the following services if a specific number of newspapers were purchased for the campus. Those services include [speakers, help with planning programs on campus, etc]." If the SGA were to bring the program back, then Longwood would have to have at least 200 papers for the program to exist. Mandeville explained some of the services could include helping fund certain events, such as ones that relate to current events or things that relate to the paper in general. An example is some schools have a once-per-week event where one school does a breakfast with The New York Times, where faculty and students gather in the dining hall to talk about current events and discuss politics in general. Other services can also include being able to bring journalists and people who work for the paper to speak on campus.

"For me," said Mandeville, "it is a passion that I personally have in something that I am interested in current events. I feel that it is just important if you are going to try to have a higher education then I think you should become more involved as far as. your citizen ship within your country and with the world in general. And unless you really have the desire to focus on these things it is hard to really have a functioning democracy."

Because Longwood is a university, it would get the paper at a discount at fifty cents per newspaper. In addition, if any faculty member requires The New York Times be read in their class then the paper will give them a complimentary one that can be delivered to their home address or at school.

One of the things Jones talked about was in order to have The New York Times here, Longwood wouldn't necessarily have to have USA Today and The Richmond Times-Dispatch. Longwood could just have USA Today, and it is something that people are talking about, suggesting that what Longwood should do is just pick one paper.

Patterson is looking into the Collegiate Readership Program as a whole, with bringing back all three: USA Today, The New York Times, and The Richmond Times-Dispatch. Patterson said, "We have made no decision as of yet and are just considering options. We will keep members of student media and students posted as to the progression of these conversations." On Tues., Feb. 16, the SGA is going to meet and discuss what their pricing options are and if there is something appealing about the Readership Program. Mandeville said, "There seems to be a lot of energy about it and a lot of people that agree that we should have papers here. The disagreement right now it seems is over what those papers should be.