ELISHA VALLADARES-CORMIER
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
A proposed bill in Student Government would place printers in all residence halls, said Sen. Stephen Shaw.
The bill, which has yet to be named, would allocate $399.92 for the purchase of eight Epson-Workforce Wireless printers. Shaw, who is one of three co-sponsors for the bill, said the idea of purchasing printers for the dorms had been a subject of discussion for some time, especially during meetings of the Student Welfare committee. So far, though, no research was done to pursue the bill until Shaw had the initiative to do so during spring break.
Shaw said the reasoning behind wanting to purchase the printers is as a convenience for students who don’t have their own printers and need to print out documents after the library closes at 11:00 p.m. Shaw has been on Student Government for three years, and said he is particularly excited about this bill because it allows Student Government to serve the student body as a whole.
“Over the course of my three years in Student Government, I have seen over $200,000 allocated to the various clubs of the university, as well as other events such as Midnight Madness and Grad Week,” said Shaw, “but the exciting things about this bill is that it allows us to serve the on-campus student body population as a whole.”
Shaw said he chose this specific make of printers because of the capability to print over the Internet from smartphones and tablets. Shaw said while Student Government would be putting up the money to make the original purchase of the printers, he has had talks with several residence directors to make a decision concerning the continuing cost of paper and toner cartridges. At the moment, Shaw said that it would appear that this ongoing cost would be left up to the dorm to finance.
Ian Gill, residence director of Trinity Hall, originally welcomed the idea of purchasing the printers, but now wonders if there is an ethical dilemma connected to this bill. Gill said he thinks that the intention to buy the printers is well-intended, but he also believes that providing this convenience to students could lead to the creation of poor study habits.
“By providing students with printers inside the dorms, are we as residence directors enabling or encouraging poor time-management?” Gill asked, unsure of the answer.
Sen. JohnPaul Talbot, one of the other co-sponsors of the bill, acknowledged Gill’s concerns but said that people with poor time-management skills will have them regardless of whether there is a printer in the dorm, so the residence directors shouldn’t be worried about enabling students to do that.
Both Gill and Talbot mentioned that the possibility of students paying a small annual fee to help pay for the paper and toner. Gill specifically said that if each student in a residence hall paid $1, the cost should be totally covered for the year. When asked about this aspect of the bill, sophomore Patrick Neve said that another possibility would be for student to provide their own paper, thus being able to use the printer virtually free of charge.
Shaw said he knows that there is a significant number of students on campus who are skeptical of Student Government, but added that he hopes that people will see the effort being made by Student Government with this bill and have a greater trust in it. He cited other endeavors that have been made and says that this proves that progress can be made.
“Sometimes it’s a matter of baby steps,” said Shaw, “but we are willing to take those steps to improve the quality of life available to the student body.”
Talbot added on to this and credited President Jack Scanlon and Vice President Clare McCallan for their practical approach to Student Government that has enabled them to work on legislations such as the printer bill.
“We aren’t going to be able to give everyone free tuition and we won’t be able to build a parking lot behind Marian Hall, but we can work on things that ease students’ little pains to make their lives better,” said Talbot.