The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate took stepsthis week to establish a permanent fund for purchasing computers and equipmentfor Tufts' student publications.
The Media Advisory Board (MAB)'s office in Curtis Hall, maintainedby the Office of Student Activities, provides the University's studentpublications with equipment to put together and print their material. Butmost computers in the office are old and in such a state of disrepair thatstudents can barely use them.
The Senate passed legislation on Sunday to create a technologyfund in the TCU budget to help replace these computers. The fund will receive0.5 percent of the total TCU budget, which comes from student activitiesfees paid by undergraduates.
The fund, which will be available beginning the academic year 2004-5,is earmarked to purchase equipment every two years; equipment must be usedfor four years before being replaced.
Until the new fund becomes active, the Senate's existing capital expenditurefund will continue to pay for repairs. The administration also plans todonate $8,500 to the Media Advisory Board to buy five new computers..
The Senate's move was prompted by complications that arose thissummer and fall. More than ten student publications are produced in theMAB office, including the Observer and the Primary Source.According to TCU Senate Treasurer Ben Lee, the computers were in such badcondition that some campus groups could not print their first issues ofthe semester as planned.
In creating the new technology fund, senators hope to preventadministrative donations in the future. Lee is not concerned with potentiallydraining the fund, since it only provides for student media groups.
"Not a huge number of groups on campus have computers," Lee said.
Sam Dangremond, editor-in-chief of The Primary Source,first brought the issue to Lee's attention. They decided to replace thecomputers after meeting with representatives from Tufts Computing and CommunicationsServices (TCCS).
According to Dangremond, at the beginning of this semester "noneof the 11 computers in the office worked at all." Unable to produce theSource's orientation issue, he was "thrown into a panic... The existenceof my organization was in doubt, as was the existence of the ten otherorganizations that use my office space," he said.
At this time, the computer server was down and each computer hadhardware problems, viruses, or both.
"I don't know what happened over the summer, but something happenedbecause it all worked last spring," Dangremond said.
Computer problems caused the production of the first issue ofthe Source to be "incredibly inefficient," according to Dangremond.He blames TCCS and ITS for not taking responsibility to keep up the lab.
Engineering student Mike Burton, who repaired the computers, "is thereason the Primary Source and the Observer have been ableto publish this whole year," Dangremond said. "He's done a ridiculous amountof work that should have been done by TCCS."
Dangremond said these technical difficulties have strained campuspublications that use the MAB lab. Computer problems caused the Sourcestaff to put in extra work and was the "the straw that broke the camel'sback" for the Observer, he said, referring to the publication'srecent format switch to a news magazine.
The Observer printed a tabloid-size four-page paper forits first issue, due to computer glitches which have continued to hurtits publishing ability. "The fact that they could not publish on a weeklybasis without devoting a huge amount of time because of technical failureswas a catalyst" for the format change, Dangremond said.
Though senators hope the new fund will eliminate similar problems inthe future, it will not kick in for another three years, so many of thespecifics have not yet been decided. Lee anticipates that TCCS will berequired to evaluate the computers before they are replaced. He also hopesan inventory system will be created to track computer purchases and conditions.
The new technology fund will be included with the existing capitalexpenditures, buffer, and new group funds which make up portions of theTCU budget not allotted to student groups at the beginning of each year.
Groups can appeal to the Senate's Allocations Board (ALBO) to receiveextra funding on a case-by-case basis. A slight increase in the studentactivities fee will also help finance the technology fund.
Some senators hesitated over the agreement at last Sunday's meeting.Concerns were raised over the lack of definite details, but Lee pointedout that the fund will not become active until "a few years down the road."
The agreement ultimately passed in a vote of 14 to nine. "The fact thatit was approved shows there was overwhelming support in the Senate forit," Lee said.
