USA Today recently made a donation of newspaper bins to Loyola.

USA Today donated these security bins to provide Loyola students with free access to current events.

The new white bins contain daily issues of The New York Times and USA Today. Students do still have to pay for The Times-Picayune.

This change is a part of the Collegiate Readership Program.

The program, also known as the Student Readership Program, started at Pennsylvania State University in 1997 and is now used at 150 universities around the country, according to USA Today’s Web site.

The program is designed to provide a resource for current events to college students, said Student Government Association President Daniel Green, political science senior. The program is working very well at Loyola, he said.

The donated bins have a helpful security feature, Green said, which require students to swipe their university ID card before the latch with open.

While the three residence halls on Main Campus have regular newspaper racks, five of the public buildings now have security bins to ensure that only students can access these newspapers.

The system has been working well with little to no complaints, Green said. The bins are easy to access, as they are located in the most frequently visited buildings.

Opening these bins with a student ID card will not charge a student’s account, because the cost for the two newspapers is included in student fees.

Barbie Cure can be reached at [email protected].