The Student Technology Fee (STF) is a two percent addition to tuition, which translates into an approximate $900,000 every year that is spent on technology for student use.
The computers in the general access computer labs, for example, are funded through this fee. The committee is made up of eight students and four faculty/staff members. One student is a non-voting member who chairs the committee, and one faculty/staff member is a non-voting designee of the chancellor. This committee has yet to convene this academic year, but a meeting is imminent.
The Student Technology Fee Committee (STFC) accepts proposals from all members of the campus community, deliberates on their merits and delivers recommendations to the chancellor on the actual expenditures. There are quite a few rules to follow.
Technology that would benefit only one discipline isn’t typically funded by STF. For instance, if the biology department submitted a proposal for new computers in the biology labs, STF may have to deny the proposal. Computers in the biology labs would not clearly benefit the whole of the student body, they would likely only benefit those who take biology classes.
OrgSync, on the other hand, is a technology that the STFC approved last year. OrgSync, simply put, is an application that is meant to simplify communication between students and organizations that students involve themselves with.
This program can clearly benefit all students in that it helps to organize student activities and student organizations.
It wasn’t so easy to get the OrgSync proposal through the STFC, though.
Proponents of OrgSync had to prove that this application was the best solution to better organize student organizations.
Detractors of OrgSync thought that something similar could be created using existing resources.
While this may have been true, it wasn’t likely to be developed for several years and may have cost more to implement than buying this solution from OrgSync.
The campus wireless system (or Wi-Fi) has been funded by STF, and was recently given a $200,000 boost. Configuration and installation is ongoing, but by its completion, there should be nowhere on campus without wireless access. There might be those who would say, “What about students who don’t have laptops?” While it’s true that those students that do not have devices that connect to the wireless system don’t directly benefit from the system, nothing is preventing them from benefiting from it. Titan Central has laptops for free student check-out.
Student fees also pay for general access lab printing. The STFC spent about $137,000, which covers paper, toner and the print management system.
The STFC also paid for new camcorders for student checkout at the Presentations Lab and Instructional Resources Center (IRC), expansion of the podcasting capabilities in classrooms and a new file server for the U:\ drive (where students can store their files on the network).
The STFC has been restructured over the past year to ensure the interests of students. The committee sends out E-mails requesting proposals and any idea for student-benefiting technology is welcome.
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