Faculty who use newspapers in classroom can get free subscriptions

Faculty who include newspaper readership as part of their required coursework can receive a daily subscription of that paper at no cost, as well as access to online classroom resources, case studies and additional teaching support materials made available by The New York Times and USA Today.

Faculty interested in receiving the free newspapers for use in their classrooms should e-mail the Penn State Student Newspaper Readership Program at newspapers@psu.edu and provide their contact information, office address and a copy of the course syllabus requiring student newspaper readership as an e-mail attachment. The New York Times and USA Today are available at most Penn State campuses. The Centre Daily Times is available as a local paper at University Park. Not all local papers at other campuses offer faculty subscriptions; a list of participating newspapers is available at http://www.newspapers.psu.edu/papers.shtml online.

As part of newspapers' partnership with the Student Newspaper Readership Program, The New York Times' Knowledge Network and USA Today's Collegiate Readership Program also offer online resources to support classroom discussions of current events and news links relevant to college students and faculty. Learn more at http://www.newspapers.psu.edu/faculty.shtml.

In addition, students enrolled at all Penn State locations are reminded that by using their Penn State ID cards at newspaper distribution machines (which will not be charged when swiped), they can get copies of The New York Times, USA Today and a variety of local and regional newspapers through the Penn State Student Newspaper Readership Program. University Park students can access the newspapers at distribution machines located on campus in residence halls, dining commons and a number of high-traffic buildings; a list of University Park locations is at http://www.newspapers.psu.edu/location.shtml online.

The Student Newspaper Readership Program, which began in 1997 at Penn State, has served as a model for hundreds of other institutions nationwide that have set up similar programs for their students.

Results of a February 2008 Penn State Pulse survey, the latest conducted by the Division of Student Affairs' Research and Assessment and Educational Benchmarking Inc. on the topic of the Student Newspaper Readership Program, noted that "data overwhelmingly support the relationship between newspaper readership and developing cognitive skills; increasing one’s awareness, understanding and the ability to articulate views on current issues; and developing civic-mindedness." For more results, download the PDF found at http://www.sa.psu.edu/sara/newspapers.shtml.

For more information about the Newspaper Readership Program, e-mail newspapers@psu.edu or visit http://www.newspapers.psu.edu online.

Information about Penn State's newspaper recycling program -- an environmentally friendly practice that also has generated tens of thousands in student scholarship dollars -- is online at http://live.psu.edu/story/26336.