ASUNM: Quit printing so much

The Faculty Senate endorsed a printing resolution that encourages professors to reduce class printing requirements Tuesday.
ASUNM president Lazaro Cardenas and ASUNM Attorney General Jaymie Roybal presented the resolution to the Senate two months ago. They were met with concerns about having material available online.

Cardenas said the resolution raised awareness about student printing strain, especially in light of last year’s 250-page printing restriction.

“It can become more cumbersome to some students, especially if they’re required to print over the 250-print limit,” he said.
The revised resolution addresses copyright concerns and questions about unfamiliarity with electronic documentation, said Judith White, an assistant journalism professor.

“I told them that they had to be conscious of two objections: That is that some faculty won’t know how to do it electronically, because they haven’t been doing it,” she said. “No. 2, some faculty are concerned about copyright and intellectual property.”
To make the transition from a paper format to an electronic one, Cardenas and Roybal teamed with IT members and professors to explain how to use eReserves, WebCT and E-Textbooks.

Roybal said they also explored legal issues on posting electronic material. She said IT verified that all the online material remains the property of its original owner.

“Obviously, we’re not asking you guys to put the entire course online, to switch your entire methods of teaching,” she said. “But if the syllabus were to be available online rather than a printed form, it could save you guys money now that we’re going through these terrible budget cuts, and us money as well.”

White said the Department of Communication and Journalism has already taken steps to alleviate printing costs and is pleased with results.
“I know that some professors do need to do that in order to achieve their course objectives, but I’ve pretty much modified all my objectives to make them web-friendly,” she said. “Many of our students fall into the definition of the Millennial Generation, and many of them have learned to learn on the Internet.”

Other Faculty Senate decisions:
The Senate approved a proposal asking to establish an academic council as a committee of the Faculty Senate. The measure passed in a 20-3 vote. The proposal says the Faculty Senate needs an academic council to address academic issues that existing committees can’t handle, such as academic program prioritization and elimination and possible changes to the University’s core curriculum.

The Senate endorsed an e-mail proposal originally presented at a Sep. 28 meeting. At that meeting, the Office of the Chief Information Officer suggested consolidating e-mail systems into a University-wide system. Senators were asked to discuss the suggestion with their departments. Faculty senators raised concerns about the e-mail security, but it passed in the end.

The Senate struck down a proposal from Daily Lobo Editor-in-Chief Pat Lohmann to make the University’s salary book available online. The proposal was tabled at the Senate’s last meeting, but addressed Tuesday. Senators said they feared that online access to their financial information could make them targets of robbery, sales companies and realtors. The salary book is only available at Zimmerman Library.