A new committee from Bellevue College’s Information Services was appointed to renegotiate a new contract for the Student Technology Fee. The committee is given the task of evaluating and recommending requests for funding the tech fee revenue.
The committee’s purpose is to review reports on technology expenses, revenues and fund balances related to the Student Technology Fee. The administration also provides information about overall technology staffing and expenses funded by the college through other sources to show the college’s commitment to students by providing technology beyond what is funded by the technology fee. The committee also provides guidance and recommendations to the director of Computing Some of the contract’s contents has been changed due to the renegotiation. The length of the contract was changed from five years to two years. Additionally, the language of the contract has been altered to differentiate between the installation of instructor-requested programs and programs installed for general student use. Also, the composition of the oversight committee underwent significant changes.
Russ Beard, the vice president of Information Services, says, “Computing Services is just one unit within the Information resources and we have many plans to provide a broad suite of services to faculty and students.”
Some of the possible uses for the tech fee are paying for wireless equipment, bandwidth and opening computers and kiosks for all students to use all over campus as well as the N250 open lab.
The oversight committee consists of eight members each with different responsibilities. Two members are faculty representatives from the Instructional Divisions and Economic and Workforce Development Divisions respectively. They are selected by the vice presidents of each division and act as contact for faculty in the represented division regarding Committee responsibilities and issue and solicit proposals from division faculty related to technology purchased with the STF funds.
The Associated Student Government will represent students’ interests. ASG President Zawdie Terry said, “The committee hasn’t been formed yet, not for this year. We will have two or three members in the committee. Technically, our representatives of entrepreneurial and technology will represent students and sit in the committee. We haven’t appointed any students representative yet for the committee.” Leslie Mayo, the ASG vice president of finance and communications, will also review the budget reports on behalf of ASG programs, while ASG Chief Justice Komalpreet Sahota will record official minutes and track official documents.
Beard will act as a liaison between the committee and the campus administration. His duties are to represent Information resources needs and to provide budget reports to the committee on behalf of the campus administration.
Beard is working closely with Student Trustee Takhmina Dzhuraeva renegotiate the contract with students.”