Student Union

Hello everyone,

As a Liaison to Congress of the South 40, I receive the minutes from meetings of the Resident Student Advisory Board (RSAB).  RSAB is composed of the College Council Presidents, Hannah Bowling the Speaker of CS40, and Dean Justin Carroll - Associate Vice Chancellor for Students.  Similar to some Senate meetings, they bring in administrators to have conversations about issues facing students and their experience at WU.

This past Tuesday, RSAB met with Barb Braun, the Director of Student Technology Services (STS) to speak about the current state of technology and many of the issues we have been running into this year. Below are the minutes from this meeting courtesy of Hannah Bowling.  

For more information, please feel free to email Hannah cs40speaker@wustl.edu.

RSAB Minutes

Meeting with Barb Braun –Student Technology Services

November 16, 2009 

Attending: Steven Perlberg (WGE), Maanasa Bandla (RuSoFo), Julia Greenberger (HIGE), Lindsey Zhang (Brookings), Paul Dohmen (JKL), Nicole Adesman (Wayman Crow), Diana Chu (Park/Mudd), Tricia Yeh (Lee Beau), Mark Bigg (LK), Chrystal Okonta (NSA), Hannah Bowling (Speaker), Dean Carroll

 STS Overview:

Current Major Project:

I)     Printingà waste reduction

A)   Costly in terms of both financial and environmental resources

B)   Goal to make people more aware and more accountable for their usage

II)   Last week’s printing (81,000 sheets)

A)   Last year: full semester: 250,000 sheets used total

B)   Currently an increase in printing

C)   Can access how much saved through Paper Cut System

a)    Must actually release the printing at a station by the printer

b)   Saved 3500 sheets last week

D)   Next step:

a)    Possible contact ‘heavy printers’ – can see the top 10 printers

(1) Not a punishment, but to raise their awareness 

Student Technology Advisory Committee

I)     Born last April  

A)   Takes the place of an old SU group  

B)   8 members: 4 at large members who apply, 4 appointed by various student groups (CS40, SU, NSA, Greeks)  

II)   Goal: ‘technology done with you rather than for you”  

A)   Current student e-mail pilot project 

a)    Live@edu: Microsoft Project

Wireless Issues

I)     Survey Results

A)   Problems were ‘everywhere’ on the 40

B)   Almost 900 students responded-largest response to a STC survey ever

C)   Reports supported ad hoc comments about issues mostly occurring after 5 pm

a)    Contact STS if you’re in a corner suite with dead spots-tell Building/Floor/nearest closet/nearest door/time of issue

D)   Some of the issues come from the massive increase in students with smartphones like blackberries or iphones----they pull on WUFI

a)    Previously: around 4000 registered devices, now around 12,000

b)   Idea about there being more freshmen that are using the wireless and causing the issues: false!

II)   Actually controlled by “Network Services”

III) 2 weeks ago: “opened up the bandwidth”

A)   Previously: at all times half the bandwidth went to Danforth Campus, half to STS users

a)    Now: after 5 pm, all bandwidth (except that being used by university researchers) will be directed to residential areas

B)   Recent contract for more that will “very substantially” increase available bandwidth

a)    Likely contracts will be signed by 2^nd semester, aren’t yet allowed to tell how much will be added

IV) Library

A)   Have recently added more Access Points 

Suggestions/Final Comments:

I)     Residents paying for printing in the future

A)   Undetermined, isn’t under STS’s job description

B)   Eads decision is under ArtSci’s purview

II)   Suggestion

A)   Make students able to see the number of pages they’ve printed this year and what that means in terms of carbon output.

Again, if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below or email myself (novickj@wustl.edu) or Hannah Bowling (cs40speaker@wustl.edu).

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

I serve in a relatively unique role with regards to student technology at Wash. U. - I am in Senate (of course), serving as the liaison on the Campus Services Committee to STS. I also am a member of the Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC), which formed last year as a way for students to have input into technology concerns and also as a channel of communication that previously was not well served between students and the providers of the technology that they use at the University. Finally, I also serve on the Student Online Services Project Communications committee (as a member of STAC), which is working to communicate the upcoming changes to student email with the advent of Live@edu to the student population as well as the rest of the University (faculty, staff, deans, administrators, and others) - you'll be hearing from us soon!

When I caught wind of the issues students were having with Internet on campus three weeks ago, I immediately sprang into action. I talked with Barb Braun, the director of STS, to ask what might be causing the issue. She and the rest of STS had begun to hear rumblings of problems plaguing students' Internet connections, but did not have hard data as to where and when the issues were arising. Since STS was unsure what was causing the instability, I suggested that we create a survey to send out to students that would hopefully pinpoint these connectivity issues. Such a survey was sent out to all students in ResLife housing last Wednesday, October 14. If you haven't taken it yet, please take it now - it closes tomorrow, October 20!

Once the results of the survey come back, I will hopefully be able to provide another update as to what the issues actually are and where STS will be looking to improve Internet connectivity.

Another update about student technology: STS is in the process of implementing a new printing program. Some of you already know how to print to a lab from your computer, but after the switchover is complete in your building, you will need to print to a virtual universal STS printer and will then be able to release your print job from any lab on the North Side or the South 40. Find out when your dorm will be switching to the new system on the STS Web site and read more about the switchover in Student Life.

Those are all the technology updates I have for you today. Have a great week!

Webfood is online ordering and on-site kiosk software that accepts customer orders via a web-based interface. It is currently being used at a number of universities including Trinity University, the University of Maryland, and Ball State University.

The Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) is a student owned and student governed advisory committee that works collaboratively with the University and IT resources to participate in technology projects and initiatives that cut across the student population.  The STAC is charged with serving as “the” voice for student technology needs for both operational purposes and strategic purposes, and collects and solicits ideas from the student body.

St. Louis, MO: Student Union will begin to offer student groups new web services from Google Apps on January 15, 2009, as a “proof of concept” project that was initiated last spring.

The new services from Google Apps will include an @su.wustl.edu email address that utilizes Gmail with over 6 GB of space, calendar and document sharing, and google sites.

“Harnessing the power of Google Apps will allow student groups to conduct business more efficiently” said Jeff Nelson, Vice President of Administration. “Students on campus have expressed a desire for improvements to the various email systems on campus. Student Union is proud to be taking the lead and offering student groups next generation web applications.”

In February, the Student Union Technology Resources Committee conducted a survey that found thatseventy-nine percent of students favored Gmail in the event that student email were outsourced.

Student Union has been working with Student Technology Services and the University General Counsel to develop this program as a pilot and a proof-of-concept for a potential student-wide switch to a commercial email service.