‘| o
PENNSTATE
Delaware
County
Vol. XXXI, No. 4
Penn State, Delaware County
November 19, 1999
A National First: PSU
Delco Readership Program
By Bob Dugan
Lion’s Eye Staff Writer
Penn State’s Readership program
began on November 1 for a three week
test run at PSU Delco, a University Park
staple which gives students the
opportunity to pick up free copies
everyday of the New York Times, the
Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, and
the Daily Times.
Five hundred newspapers arrived on
the first day, and, surprisingly enough,
before 11 a.m. the papers were gone. The
program became an almost instantaneous
success. PSU Delco C.E.O., Dr.
Tomeszko was “thrilled”, as were most
students who walked into each buildings’
lounge to find stacks of free newspapers
at their disposal.
Eric Hellstern, the New York Times
Educational Marketing Manager, brought
the program to PSU Delco. It has been a
great success at University Park where
each dormitory receives the papers and
the price is included in the dorm fee. At
Indiana University of Pennsylvania the
program was created for honor students
only, and at Lafayette College only law
and government students are part of it.
Delco is the first commuter campus
nationally to test the program, but
already other commuter campuses want
to be part of what Eric Hellstern calls a
“win-win situation”. He also believes it is
Sr
EWS
AE RDERSHIP PROGRAM
3
ark Thmes
important for students to have a “world
view” and be “well rounded” by reading
newspapers daily.
Right now only 18 percent of 18 to
22-year-olds read newspapers in some
form on a day to day basis, yet in
University Park nearly two-thirds read a
newspaper daily. This number could
increase once the Program enacts stage
two which will make the papers available
to students who live off campus. Starting
in early 2000 at University Park and
Delco, students will need their student ID
card to access a free paper. A machine
will be set up in the lounges. When
students swipe their card, the box opens
and they take which paper they want.
The reason the program was created
was to increase the circulation of the
New York Times. The only profit the
paper receives is through advertising, and
once the circulation rises, so does the
price to advertise.
Still, while money is the underlying
factor, the students of Delco are not
complaining that they can find out the
latest football spreads from the USA
Today, the hard facts on mayor-elect John
Street from the Inquirer, or the trademark
national news from the New York Times,
for free.
As Eric Hellstern mentioned in one of
his pro-Readership Program speeches;
“This is the best thing to happen on
college campuses.”
Andrea Sealy and Patti O’Hara read up on the day’s current events.
Photo by DorisRuiz
Half A Million Miles!
Delco’s Nittany Lion and local news photographer, along with students and
faculty, greeted philosophy professor Dr. Robert Ginsberg, upon completion of his
500,000th mile of commuting to campus from Maryland since 1967. The
Associated Press picked up the local story, which then appeared in newspapers
around the country.
«2
Photo by Sarah Stover
University Park Wants
Freshmen Enrollment Stable
By Doris Ruiz
Lion’s Eye Staff Writer
Everyday students walk in and out of
campus doors, passing by or greeting
familiar faces. And sometimes the crowd
of students lounging outside those doors
may seem overwhelming. It seems as
though each semester brings forth more
and more students. And due to Delco’s
new Classroom building and impending
new majors, the diverse crowd may get
bigger.
Penn State Delaware County Campus’
release of fall enrollment numbers last
month revealed that a total of 1732
students are presently enrolled- a big
change from Last years sum of 1674. Of
those 58 new faces,36 minority students
this year compared to the 320 students in
fall of 1998.
But while Penn State University as a
whole wants to increase the number of
minority students, it also wants to
maintain a steady enrollment count.
The university initially set goals to
meet the needs of increasing numbers of
upper-division students studying at Penn
State branches who wish to finish their
programs at those campuses rather than
transferring to University Park.
Some of these goals are to keep
enrollment at University Park between
40,000 and 42,000, to increase upper
divisiion enrollment and degree options
available at campus colleges, and to
continue to allow students to move freely
among all P.S.U. locations without the
need of transferring their credits to the
Penn State campus in which they wish to
graduate.
According to the fall enrollment
numbers released last month, the
University is successfully accomplishing
what it set out to do. Fall semester
enrollment throughout the university
basically remained the same as last year.
Delco is also keeping up with its end
of the bargain. In the past year, the
freshman enrollment count has held
steady from 563 in fall of 1998 to 562 in
fall of ‘99. But its number of
baccalaureate upper-division students has
increased dramatically from 183 students
to 251.
“We want to expand the number of
students that will stay to complete their
education here at Delaware County”,
stated Deborah Erie, Director of
Enrollment Management.
(Continued on page 5)
College TV Network Begins This Spring At PSU
By Ed Blackburn
Lion’s Eye Staff Writer
- “So tell me,” asks John Dinin, who
works in the campus cafeteria, speaking
to Student Life’s Doreen Hettich over
lunch, “Why does the Lion’s Den have
cable TV, and not the cafeteria?”
“Well, that’s a good question,” Ms.
Hettich answers. “But once we have the
College Television Network here, at
least people won’t have to climb on the
tables to change the channel.”
“So I guess we won’t have to watch
Jerry Springer every day then.”
What is this College Television
Network? Sponsored by Student Life,
this network will begin installing new
TVs around campus, before the Spring
semester begins, featuring satellite-fed
news and entertainment programs
geared specifically toward a college
audience.
Two channels will be featured. One
will show predominantly music videos,
and the other will show information
programs (sports, news, health news —
“a little of everything” as Ms. Hettich
described it.) The news will be updated
every two hours via satellite, so students
will know what’s going in the world,
even while at school.
The program will be free to the
campus, and the Network will be using
all their own equipment and maintaining
it themselves. It will be funded by 8
minutes of commercials shown every
hour.
These commercials will not be
showing tobacco, alcohol, condom or
feminine hygiene advertisements, Ms.
Hettich said.
“It will be like the TV stations in the
airport, that kind of concept — except
with less news and more music,” she
explained.
The Network is currently looking for
good locations to place their televisions.
Probable locations are in the Fitness
Center and Cafeteria in the Commons
Building, and the Student Lounge in
Main.