By Paul A. Anthony, Editor in Chief
SATV, which has lain dormant for more than a year, could receive a massive overhaul as part of a plan worked out between the Students’ Association and the office of Campus Life.
In SA’s weekly meeting Wednesday, Congress approved bill 81-05, the release of more than $7,000 to use in negotiating with inLighten for the use of its product VideoNet.
The product is supposed to be able to provide campus television stations with national news broadcasts from United Press International, templates for presenting announcements and easy ways to schedule and air both VideoNet and local programming.
“It would improve SATV exponentially,” said Wayne Barnard, dean of Campus Life, who presented the proposal with Chris Faulkner, chair of the SATV committee.
Starting up the program would cost $14,365, a cost split equally between SA and Campus Life. Administration officials are in the process of negotiating with inLighten representatives to both lower the price and increase the quality of the product, Barnard said.
In order to grant the $7,182.50, Congress drew funds from several sources:
* $4,040 was withdrawn from the Advocacy Request Fund, which leaves that fund empty.
* $2,492.50 was taken from the Student Request Fund, leaving $233.50 for the remainder of the semester.
* All $500 allocated for technology upgrades was used.
* And the $150 allocated for videotapes for SATV was also used.
“We’ve been planning to do this, and we have the money to do this,” said Sen. Shep Strong, junior class, speaking for the Appropriations Committee before Congress voted 25-5 to pass the bill with four abstentions.
The passage was part of a busy week for SA. Vice president Jeremy Gordon revised Wednesday’s bill 81-04, to provide students free use of the pool tables and video games in Corbin Recreation Center.
Gordon said the Campus Center already has agreed to let students play pool free of charge with their student ID. Gordon paid the Campus Center $450 through a grant from the Advocacy Request Fund earlier last week.
“This is just another thing that student government does,” he said.
The bill would require paying both the Campus Center and Harp Entertainment for video game proceeds and continue payment to the Campus Center for free use of the pool tables.
Also Wednesday, Congress unanimously passed a resolution, 31-0, signaling its approval of president Jeremy Smith’s attempts to enforce the Constitution’s attendance policy. Attempts to remove chronically absent members have failed because three-fourths of Congress has not been present to vote on impeachment.
The resolution gives congressional approval if Smith asks members to resign their posts.
A special session Sunday attracted only about a dozen voting members, but several bills were introduced that will be discussed Wednesday.
