On Friday, June 5, at 1:30 p.m. in room C-225, members of the Associated Student Government and faculty from Bellevue College came together to discuss and approve various departments requests for money to improve student life and education all around.
The first request to be approved by the panel which was proposed by Emily Kolby was for admissions and advising and the amount requested was $4,633. With this request being approved, there will be a lot more resources open to those who are new students or who are looking to become a student at BC. There will be additional kiosks that are added to student areas in order for students to register along with other kiosks that will help students be better prepared for school in a number of ways. There will be nine new units that will be purchased and placed in the open area of building B.
At the beginning of the meeting, it was shown that representatives of NSCOM would be asking for $79,965.02 for funding the program, but further into the meeting that quickly changed. The proposal for NSCOM was pulled, due to the department finding other resources that might be able to fund them completely. For now, the issue is off the board and figured out.
Additionally approved for funding was the GED request. With this approval, the GED department will receive $29,080.22. The money will go towards a lab to prepare students for GED testing and will be limited to only GED students. “The use of computers is crucial for our GED classes and these tests will all be administered online starting October 2013. Students need to gain familiarity with the computers and it’s almost impossible to get one in a lab unless your classes are scheduled from three to five in the afternoon when nobody needs to use one,” said Thomas Almli on behalf of Tom Graham.
Washington state has delared that all GED testing must be administered online by Jan. 1, 2014 but BC aims to have it up and running by Oct. 14, 2013. As a result of this, the push for the GED lab was strong. Although it was approved, it was approved with the contingency that “garages” will be purchased in order to reserve classroom space and have a place to keep classroom furniture and keep the computers protected.
The BC music department proposed a request for a varied list of equipment that needed to be purchased and that amounted to a total of $19,400. After the discussion and vote, the proposal was approved. The list of equipment that will be purchased with this money includes: Roland M200i VMixer, Roland S-4000M Digital Snake Merge Unit, Roland S-4000S 3208 Digital Snake, Roland R-1000 Digital Recorder, Mackie Big knob, two Aviom A1611 Personal Mixers and a 128 gig iPad. If this movement had not been approved, the music programs at BC would not be able to digitally record anything or have portable equipment for student and faculty use. “We’re using all 1990’s technology in 2013. We’re just not able to do it anymore,” said Almli. Roughly 700 students will benefit from the new technology that will be presented to BC.
Lastly, the Interior Design department requested about $27,000 for a Quotation Laser System 3D printer and a Quotation Exhaust System. Unfortunately, nobody from the Interior Design department was able to make the meeting, so nobody at the meeting knew the importance or reasoning for the funding so it was withdrawn and will have to be resubmitted in the future. “This is one of those things where I don’t have the expertise to support this,” said Russ Beard.
Regarding the amount of copies that BC students go through each year, it has been reduced by 25 percent, going from four million to three million copies in just one year of taking action in order to reduce the amount of copies we go through. Additionally, this has also saved BC $15,000 in just paper alone, according to Beard.
With the Student Technology Fee meeting, a lot of new and improved factors will be hitting the BC campus within the next few quarters. For those who are interested in learning more, please visit the Bellevue College website.
