First SGA meeting reveals plans for addition PrintQ funding


The Student Government Association is planning to start a “PrintQ fund” for students who go over their allotted on-campus printing quota.

The fund is still in the planning stages, and would be created in a partnership with the Office of Information Technology, SGA President Brittany Mouzourakis said after the group’s first meeting in the Dow Science Complex Monday night.

“We don’t know how much money, what the mechanisms or the guidelines would be,” Mouzourakis, a Garden City senior, said.

Currently undergraduate students are allowed $10 worth of printing each semester, and graduate students are allotted $15. The proposed fund would allot more money to students, if they can prove to have an actual need for it.

“A lot of the students that were going over the limit were graduate students and RSO presidents,” Mouzourakis said. “They would have to show there is a need; something substantive.”

Muskegon senior Dave Breed, SGA vice president, said the SGA and OIT are currently determining the best way for students to apply.

“Brittany and I are working with (OIT vice president) Roger Rehm to figure out how to best dole out this money,” Breed said.

During the SGA meeting, Mouzourakis said 12 percent of students exceeded the print quota during the fall 2010 semester.

Mouzourakis expects the money for the fund to come from the OIT’s budget.

“It would come somewhere from OIT,” Mouzourakis said. “It would come somewhere from Roger Rehm’s budget, I think.”

Rehm was unavailable for comment at time of publication.

Sterling Heights senior Charles Coyle has been opposed to the PrintQ system since it was started in 2010.

"I pay enough to go here," Coyle said, regarding being charged for additional printing beyond the limit. "If they want to set up a fund for people with a legitimate need (to print more than the quota), I don't have a problem with that. I have a problem with the system as it is."

Mouzourakis expects an official decision on the creation of this fund to be made by February.

Legal clinic moves forward Previously reported to be in the planning stages, the SGA is moving forwarded with their pro bono legal clinic, said Mouzourakis and Breed  at Monday's meeting.

Mouzourakis said four CMU faculty members who are also practicing lawyers have expressed interest in volunteering their time.

The faculty members are not yet officially attached to the clinic, and Mouzourakis declined to release their names.

“I think we are ready to have a meeting (with the prospective faculty volunteers) next week,” Mouzourakis said.

She said the SGA is planning to start taking appointments for the clinic scheduled for mid-February and on.

“Having four faculty members is a good place to be, so they can rotate every week,” Mouzourakis said. “Every faculty member would only have to donate their time once a month. I think asking one faculty member to do it every week would be a problem, because they are busy.”

The plan is to schedule four half-hour student appointments with a practicing attorney every week. The meetings would be to provide students with legal advice, but not legal representation.

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