Rank the Student Newspapers in Order of Their Interest to You

We asked 45 students:

WHEN ASKED TO rate four current student publications on a four-point scale, 71 percent of students polled ranked the D number one. Which papers did they like the least? The Beacon, a conservative paper founded as an alternative to the Review, wins the most-disliked contest; 49 percent said they lined their bird cages with it. The Review was close behind in unpopularity, though; 40 percent gave it a worst" rating. On the other hand, 11 percent said they liked The Review best. "It has the balls to speak its mind," commented one student.

Besides those three papers there's Common Sense, a middle-of-the-road paper that got middle-of-the-road responses. Thirteen percent rated it a "one," and 11 percent gave it a bottom grade.

And what criteria did students use to judge these publications? A typical response came from Robert Trenkamp '93. "The two main things I look for in a campus paper are objective reporting of campus news and 'Calvin and Hobbes'," he said.