On Oct. 3, in their fourth meeting of the year, Associated Student Government passed two bills regarding Recognized Student Organizations and addressed increasing public transportation availability on campus and student concerns about the recent changes in printing policy.
One of the issues brought up at the first What Do You Want Wednesday was for ASG to present a proposal to the Emporia city commission for L-Cat to establish direct routes from campus to Walmart and other locations on the north side of Emporia. The proposal was presented yesterday.
The issue of SkyPrint charging for printing jobs after the free first 100 pages was also raised at What Do You Want Wednesday. Michael Erickson, associate vice president of information technology and chief information officer, spoke at the senate meeting to address those concerns.
Erickson said one of the goals for SkyPrint was to “create a consistent printing service across campus.” SkyPrint differs from printing services at other universities because it provides students with the option to send print jobs from mobile devices to printers in William Allen White library and computer labs campus-wide.
Erickson said while over a million pages were printed during the spring 2013 semester–when printing was still free–the overall cost of printing “went through the roof.” More than 50 percent of students printed less than 200 pages, but four users printed of over 4,000 pages.
“The cost to provide that affects everybody,” Erickson said. “If we’re using the money to pay for paper, toner and other printing maintenance expenses, we can use those funds somewhere else in the university.”
Erickson said he believes they’ve provided a more flexible and equitable campus-wide wireless printing program.
Senate Bill 14001, “Rescinding Student Organizations,” passed 17-0-2. The bill’s sponsor, Lynn Hobson, dean of students, said the organizations in question were being rescinded for not registering in the spring, or not completing or submitting their required community service hours.
“I know that behind the scenes, people that have been working diligently with the clubs that were recognized late in the year,” Hobson said. “They’re working to get registration worked out with them.”
Senate Bill 14002, “Reserve Fund Request for Sociology Club,” passed 19-0-0. Rowley said the club had previously missed the opportunity to receive allocation.
“We had a president who experienced some health problems and we did not know this until after we were supposed to meet to get what we asked for,” said Rochelle Rowley, associate professor of sociology.
The club plans to use the money for a visiting speaker, organize a sociological symposium at ESU and to cover travel costs for students to present at the Sociological Society.
The next ASG meeting will be held at 5:15 p.m. Oct. 24 in the Senate Chamber.
