Five years ago the Associated Student Government signed a contract with the Division of Informational Resources on the technology fee which comes to an end at the end of this fiscal year. According to ASG Staff Adviser Brandon Lueken, the ASG has been working all year with the Division of Informational Resources to renegotiate this contact to get students a better deal.
There are, however, many fees involving technology, and the plan for the renegotiations of the new contract is to combine all of them into one. Although the technology fee might increase, the cost of each separate fee goes down if they are all combined.
The ASG is also planning on changing the length of the contract from five years, to two years. ASG Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurial Representative Vannarith Khov said that this is so “the students who work here are able to look into the contract more and are able to change it more often than a five year term.” Also, because “technology changes so fast, that a five year time frame is too long.”
The technology fee goes towards many things, but mainly it is used for “supporting various projects on campus, right now a lot of it goes into our Division of Informational Resources,” said Lueken. It “goes into supporting all the technology that students use, it is part of how we got our wireless throughout campus.”
This fee that provides funds for many things is not only going to be used by staff, these funds are also available for student use. One benefit that would come out of the new contract is “easier access to funds for students and staff,” said Lueken. If a student or staff member would like to use the money they would have to ask the committee and submit a budget proposal. “We want to provide students resources” said Lueken. “This is important; students are being charged money so we must handle this money responsibly.”
