Students at WIU get 10,000 pages of free printing, per semester. But the student director of technology, Joshua Defibaugh presented a bill to lower that amount.
“What I wanted to do was implement a 1,500-page limit onto students and faculty and any pretty much anybody that has the ability to print, to save money and to reallocate that money into different technological projects,” says Defibaugh.
The bill did not pass, with many people saying it wouldn’t save enough money since it was just a spit in the ocean.
But one bill just recently proposed did pass.
To raise funds, SGA senator at-large, Robby Barlow created a bill to give donors the naming rights to various buildings and common areas around campus.
“There’s a lot of buildings that don’t have names like the multicultural center, the union, the stadium around hanson field, and I was like, that could be a way to raise revenue,” says Barlow. “And we found out the way that you normally get your name on a building is either a: someone nominates you for that type of thing, or you pay 50 percent of the building costs. In fact, the Multicultural Center draws $10 million, so it would cost $5 million. So part of the bill was to ask them to reconsider that mechanism to a donor-based mechanism. Where instead of like 50 percent, it’s like hey, I’ve got three million and I want to put my name on the MCC.”
The bill was passed and was sent to the WIU foundation and Barlow says he believes they will be open to the idea.
SGA president Wil Gradle says there is still more to come.
“We’re doing the impasse impact movement as well as we’re in the works of another student advocacy day in April, which the, well we’re floating with a couple dates right now. We’re playing around with them and seeing what we come up with. But I’d say my biggest role is to try to educate students as to what’s going on and what they can do to help improve our position,” says Gradle.
And they are. Defibaugh plans to readdress his printing bill later in the semester and all SGA senators and representatives are collecting more ideas at every meeting.
