The GWKNOWS program, which was started last year to provide GW students with free newspapers in residence halls, has replaced The Wall Street Journal with The Washington Post.

Students get the USA Today and The New York Times in addition to The Post.

Some students said GW made the right decision in replacing a newspaper read primarily by businesspeople.

Sophomore Joel Levinson said he is happy residence halls no longer get The Wall Street Journal. He said the paper conservative and perpetuat(es) corporate power in our country, he said.

Rhoda Fischer, special assistant to President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, said The Wall Street Journal was removed from GW circulation in order to offer a paper with primarily D.C. news.

Fischer also cited low readership as a reason for the change.

Last year GW officials said they decided against The Washington Post because students could pick it up at any street corner, according to the Aug. 23, 1999 issue of The Hatchet.

The reason we didn’t pick The (Washington) Post or (The Washington) Times is because we didn’t want to pick something that students could get around the corner, Barbara Porter said, according to The Hatchet.

Senior Latoyia Harris said she thinks The Washington Post will provide students with more local coverage.

While many students said they were happy to find a paper that provided local news, senior Jayson Hesch said business students enjoyed getting The Wall Street Journal because homework assignments often require reading the paper.

He said he would have liked to have both papers available in residence halls.

The New York Times was not considered for removal because of its popularity among students, GW officials said.

Because USA Today introduced the GWKNOWS program, its place on GW newsstands is permanent, Fischer said.-Seth Goldman