Only a fraction of LSU’s student population participated in Student Government’s recent Student Tech Fee survey, but the results were overwhelmingly in favor of installing multimedia technology in more classrooms.
The survey was offered on student’s PAWS accounts until Thursday, Nov. 28.
The survey was brought on by a measure in the student tech fee committee, which is hoping to expand multimedia technology into 25 new classrooms with Student Technology Fee money.
A tech fee of $75 is assessed every semester and raises an estimated $4.5 million for technology around campus.
The $4.5 million is divided into three parts, one-third for multimedia classroom upkeep and expansion, one-third for the upkeep and expansion of public access labs and one-third for discipline-specific spending.
According to the survey results released Monday, 1,287 students participated in the survey, with a majority of the votes indicating their teachers used technology in the classroom
More than 75 percent of the students who filled out the survey said technology in the classroom enhances their learning experience and they would like to see more classrooms outfitted with instructional technology.
Student Senate Speaker Michael Busada said the tech fee committee would vote on whether or not to install new multimedia equipment in the proposed 25 new classrooms.
“It should pass now that we have the input of the students,” Busada said. “It seems that students were overwhelmingly in favor of making more classrooms multimedia capable.”
Busada said once the proposal is approved, the Office of Computing Services and Center for Educational Learning and Teaching will have no trouble equipping the classrooms with multimedia equipment.
Monica Smothers, an elementary education sophomore, took the survey but said none of her friends participated in it.
“It didn’t let you go too in-depth,” Smothers said. “If we sent out e-mails and canvassed the college to tell people about it, SG would probably get a higher number of people to participate.”
Smothers said she thought the survey overall was a good thing, but it didn’t allow students to truly express what they thought about student tech fee spending.
SG President Allen Richey said the numbers in favor of multimedia expansion would be discussed at the tech fee committee’s meeting on Friday.
“I don’t know if the results of the survey are completely accurate,” Richey said. “But I don’t know if any survey is ever completely accurate. It sounds encouraging that the people who did participate voted in favor of expansion.”
Richey said if the committee votes to expand into the 25 classrooms he hopes the work can start quickly.
“We haven’t approved anything yet,” Richey said. “But it would be great if the OCS, the CELT and the Registrar’s Office could get through as soon as possible.”