In spring 1987, a study was conducted at William Rainey Harper College (WRHC) to assess students' perceptions of the campus newspaper, "The Harbinger," in order to assist "Harbinger" staff in meeting student needs. A random sample of 240 degree credit students and 160 non-degree credit students enrolled in fall 1986 were surveyed by mail to determine personal characteristics; preferences for movies and music; political views; and favorite and least favorite sections of "The Harbinger." Study findings, based on a 47% response rate from degree credit students and a 35% response rate from non-degree credit students, included the following: (1) with respect to movie preferences, both groups preferred comedies, followed by adventures and movies based on true stories; (2) hard rock was preferred by 13.5% of the credit students, but only 4.1% of the non-degree credit students; (3) 37.4% of the degree credit students and 47.2% of the non-degree credit students classified themselves as Republicans; (4) 16% of the degree credit students and 72.2% of the non-degree credit students indicated that they never read "The Harbinger," while 45.4% of the degree credit students and 13.0% of the non-degree credit students reported reading it several times during the fall semester; (5) for degree credit non-readers, 58.9% indicated that they were too busy to be bothered with reading the paper; (6) the favorite section of both groups was on-campus events and announcements, though a sizable proportion of the degree credit students favored the campus news section; and (7) 34% of the degree credit students indicated that the sports section was their least favorite part of the paper. Detailed study findings and the survey instrument are appended. (MDB)