Recently, USA TODAY National Accounts Director Ratona Harr sat down with Collette Thompson, Coordinator of the Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement at Northern Kentucky University. She discussed The Collegiate Readership Program, and how NKU has integrated the program not only in the classroom, but as a part of the campus community through a new program called Healthy Monday: Let’s Talk.

USA TODAY: The Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement has spearheaded the Collegiate Readership Program at Northern Kentucky University. What are the primary goals for making newspapers available to the students on campus?

Collete Thompson: Availability of the newspapers on campus is the face of the program, and is important in and of itself. Every day, we see students sitting cross-legged in the hall before classes start, catching up on the day’s news. That contributes to a better-informed, more engaged student body.

So availability meets a primary goal of the program to arm students with reliable information about public affairs and current events.

But use of the newspapers as a teaching tool in our classrooms, and use of the newspapers in conjunction with public engagement programming represent a deeper component of CRP at Northern. Our goal is not only to make students aware of the news, but to encourage them to develop the habit of thinking about the news and discussing it with others. Reflection. Critical thinking. Dialogue informed by factual information. As with any educational institution, we try to encourage those, and the newspapers are great tool for doing so.

We have a giant whiteboard outside the library on campus where each week we post a public affairs question and we invite students to write their comments. Each question is linked online to newspaper stories about the topic. So if we are asking about the debt crisis, we invite students to read up on the debt crisis. The whiteboard — called Democracy Square — has a virtual companion on Facebook, where we also post the weekly question.

Classroom use is, of course, up to faculty for the most part. Many use newspaper articles as supplemental readings for their courses, and that happens across disciplines. More systematically, we bring USA Today in the classroom by connecting it to Healthy Mondays: Let’s Talk. What this use demonstrates is that the value of the newspapers isn’t just the realm of politics.

USA TODAY: Tell us more about Healthy Mondays: Let’s Talk.

Collete Thompson: The data on obesity is overwhelming. If you did a Google search, you will find over 23.8 million results in 0.09 seconds. We are being bombarded from every direction with messages about obesity. Here at Northern Kentucky University, one approach we have taken to make sense of all the data — and not be paralyzed by it — is Healthy Monday: Let’s Talk.

Healthy Monday: Let’s Talk (HMLT) is a new initiative that creates a space to have a productive and powerful conversation about obesity. One thing that makes the initiative special is that it’s a collaboration of NKU’s Center for Civic Engagement and Wellness Center. HMLT approaches the complexities of the obesity epidemic by raising awareness with conversations and offering options for healthy lifestyles.

Healthy Monday: Let’s Talk was inspired by the Healthy Monday Campaign, a national movement backed by leading public health schools that dedicates the first day of every week to health. People view Monday as a day for a fresh start and a chance to set healthy intentions for the rest of the week. NKU is one of twenty-one educational institutions partnered with the campaign. The Monday Campaigns are becoming popular with local governments, non-profit agencies, neighborhood groups and businesses.

USA TODAY: How has the Collegiate Readership Program been integrated into Healthy Monday: Let’s Talk?

Collete Thompson: The main resource for the Healthy Monday: Let’s Talk initiative is the Collegiate Readership Program. Every Monday our Democracy Square is dedicated to the initiative. We post a question at the square about obesity. We use recent articles from USA Today to craft the questions making them more relevant to the students. So, if a student is moved to comment on the question, we encourage them to think a little more deeply or differently by reading the accompanying article. The use of the newspaper has allowed us to approach the topic of obesity from many different angles which supports the notion of how complex an issue this really is for each of us individually and as a county.

In addition to using the newspaper for our Healthy Monday: Let’s Talk Democracy Square questions, we also use it for the classroom conversations.

USA TODAY: Can you tell us more about the classroom conversations?

Collete Thompson: As you know, obesity is a tough topic, that some people consider taboo. However, we felt that the only way to address the issue is to hit it head-on and in a way that confronts students with their own personal power of changing the way they talk about and think about obesity. The goal of the classroom conversations is to create a space for the students to reflect on and share how obesity or their personal views about obesity have impacted their own life and community, realize the power they hold for creating change and motivating them to take action however big or small it may be.

In my opinion, the most powerful component of the conversations is that they are led by peer facilitators. It’s not me or one of my colleagues from the Wellness Center trying to tell them how they should feel or what they should think. It’s not a professor giving them the facts about the issue and testing them on what they know. It is instead an opportunity for the students to engage with each other, get a little more connected to each other, and be involved with a respect conversation that isn’t about being right or changing minds. It’s about listening deeply and respectfully and challenging oneself to think about the ways they are contributing to the negativity and complexities of the issue. It challenges the students to be better citizens not only for themselves but for each other.

USA TODAY: How has the Readership Program enhanced the conversations?

Collete Thompson: During the spring semester, we were invited into nine different classrooms to host a Healthy Monday: Let’s Talk Conversation. We selected an article focused on the complexities of obesity and used it as a common reading for all students in all the classes. In addition to the common reading, we provided some classes with articles that were specific to what they were studying. For example, the Introduction to Mass Communication course read articles that were focused on how the media has impacted the way our society views obesity. Unlike the text books used by many classes, we are able to pull the most current news and thoughts by utilizing the readership program.

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