The Hyde Park Herald, a weekly community newspaper, will be available on campus starting this Wednesday due to a new Student Government (SG) readership program.

SG will distribute 200 copies of the Herald each Wednesday to libraries, cafes, and student-run coffee shops, according to second-year SG Community and Government Liaison Tyler Kissinger.

“One thing that I think is particularly powerful about providing copies of the paper in public settings is that it provokes conversation about the topic. I also think that having the Herald distributed…would do a lot to break down the subconscious barrier between the University and the neighborhood that seems to be ingrained in institutional culture,” Kissinger said in an e-mail.

Kissinger proposed the readership program at an SG Assembly meeting in January, and the Executive Slate voted to fund it out of its administrative budget later that month. Kissinger estimates it will cost around $700 to fund the program for the remainder of the school year and $1,500 for an entire school year.

SG already sponsors a New York Times readership program, the latest iteration of which began in 2011. There is also an Uncommon Fund proposal to bring copies of the Chicago Tribune to campus, modeled on similar readership programs at Northwestern and Notre Dame. In 2010, an SG pilot program distributed copies of the Tribune to students, but it was discontinued due to limited funding.

—Sarah Manhardt