In an effort to build relationships with departments and colleges on campus, Student Government allocated around $1,400 to create multimedia labs for the College of Human Sciences and Education and the Women’s and Gender Studies department during its Feb. 17 meeting.
SGFB Nos. 2 and 3 give $707 to HSE and $719 to WGS to fund the labs, which, when completed, will include 32” Smart HDTVs, web cameras and Apple TVs that students and faculty can use to prepare presentations and communicate with out-of-state faculty and peers.
Senator Jacob Phagan, author of the bills, said the initiative was brought to his attention during a Student Technology Fee Committee meeting.
“We had a discretionary fund for about a million dollars we got to use,” Phagan said. “Because they were such small amounts, the committee decided not to fund them … so we said, ‘Let Student Government fund them.’”
In addition to housing reading materials and information for the department, the current WGS library, located in Himes Hall, also serves as a meeting place for faculty and students. For some classes, these meeting rooms also serve as classrooms.
WGS graduate assistant Ray Siebenkittel said the need for a media lab is evident because the gathering space for the department does not even have the resources for students to give PowerPoint presentations.
“We realized the WGS library was effective for studying and planning, but students needed the ability to present and display their work,” Siebenkittel said. “Our goal is to build the WGS library into an accessible and intimate space with a wealth of resources.”
Phagan believes these initiatives will help SG create closer relationships with different departments on campus, especially during a time of potential budget cuts.
“With budget cuts going on, if [the media labs] weren’t going to get funded now, they probably would have never gotten funded,” Phagan said.
The funding for the labs comes from original budgets proposed by WGS and HSE. Phagan said although SG offered more funding, the departments declined and stuck with the original budgets.
Early childhood education junior Lauren Couvillion is looking forward to having a space where students in her college can study and prepare presentations with state-of-the-art utilities.
“I think it will be awesome for [students] to have a place to go on campus with resources specifically there to help us,” Couvillion said. “Having a place like that to meet up could really be helpful for projects.”
Although the labs will primarily help HSE and WGS students when they are completed, the labs will be available for all students to use.
Siebenkittel hopes the lab will be a resource to all students since WGS is an interdisciplinary program.
“We are developing the library into a learning space that is capable of providing for students in the long-term,” Siebenkittel said.