Thanks to a four-week pilot program recently negotiated between the school and USA Today, students now have access to free daily issues of The New York Times, Des Moines Register and USA Today. The papers are available in four separate racks in the Spencer Grill, Kistler Science Library, Creative Computing Lab and Fireplace Lounge.

According to SGA President Megan Goering '08, who helped bring the program to campus, a primary motivation was to provide students easy access to more publications, citing an initiative that passed last semester calling for a greater diversity of news sources.

"We thought this would be a great way to stay up to date about the world and get a variety of perspectives from different publications," Goering said.

The program also has potential secondary benefits in addition to increasing diversity of news sources. Depending on the specifics of the school's contract for the program, USA Today may also place recycling bins next to the newspaper racks and even pick up the recycled papers free of charge. The three publications provided at Grinnell may also send journalists and editors to the Grinnell campus for future workshops or talks.

The program, which began at Pennsylvania State University in 1997, includes over 300 different publications and is administered by the Education Office of USA Today.

"USA Today is the quarterback of the program. We take care of the delivery of the papers," said Jeffrey Meyer, an Account Manager with USA Today and the company's liaison for the Grinnell program. "We coordinate the number of papers needed."

Schools may select any publication participating in the program that already delivers to the school's area.

The program's future on campus will depend largely on student feedback. Meyer said that the company will administer two sets of surveys about the program and students' preferences for publications, one of which was completed last Friday. "We do them to survey the students and try and get their initial and post-pilot programs about the newspapers in general," Meyer said. "They're questions as to what's the main source of your news, how often do you read the same newspaper, since coming to college has your readership changed or remained the same."

Chevon Chatman '08 said that the program would be a good supplement to already existing news sources on campus. "I get the S