Senate: Election Results and Visit from Administration and Staff to Discuss Printing
The Senate executive board during a meeting (Photo Aly Wein/The Gettysburgian)
By Phoebe Doscher, Editor-in-Chief
Monday’s Student Senate meeting saw the induction of newly elected senators, nomination of affinity group leaders, and a conversation about printing issues with Provost Jack Ryan, Dean of the Library Robin Wagner, Director of Infrastructure and Computing Thomas Franza, and the Library’s Director of Research and Instruction Kerri Odess-Harnish.
Announcements and Election Results
Senate reached a quorum on Monday, allowing them to hold committee meetings, including approving club budget requests through the Budget Management Committee (BMC). President Syd Quan ‘22 reiterated the call for nominations for the Ralph Cavaliere award, presented to a faculty member at Fall Honors Day. She also made a call for student representatives to help with the Integrated Learning Committee, chaired by English Professor McKinley Melton.
Vice President Colin Hughes ‘23 went through with the induction ceremony for newly-elected senators. The board certified the results of the election, swore the senators in, and announced the new committee chairs. The results are as follows:
Newly-elected First-Year Senators:
Joey Labrie ‘25
Hannah Repole ‘25
Michael Woods ‘25
Lana Sader ‘25
Senators At-Large:
Rachel Fishler ‘24
Sam Martin ‘24
Aidan Campo ‘24
Brendan Donnelly ‘24
Vivek Rallabandi ‘25
Geoffrey Meadville ‘25
Chris Miller ‘25
Affinity Group Leaders:
(there will be more affinity group leaders at a later time)
Religious: Matt James ‘22
Political: Alexander Bove ‘24
Academic: Allie Acero ‘23
Committee Chairs:
Academic & Career Affairs Committee: Rocco Rodrigues ‘23
Budget Management Committee (BMC): Connor Heath ‘23
College Life Advisory Committee (CLAC): Drew Lemon ‘24 and Aidan Campo ‘24
Diversity Committee: Saddichhya Bhattarai ‘24 and Oluwafadekemi O. Agboola ‘24
Inclusion Committee: Alex Economou-Garcia ‘22
Senate Opinions Committee: Matt James ‘22 and Thomas Cassara ‘23
Senate Outreach Committee: Evelyn Datte ‘24
Senate Policy Committee: Jack Comegno ’24
Senate Sustainability Committee: Anna Imrie ’24
Senate Safety Committee: Ethan Wilt ‘23 and Rachel Fischler ‘24
The executive board reported that information is forthcoming regarding meetings for the BMC, policy committee, and inclusion committee. Treasurer Connor Heath ‘23 will be holding a session for clubs to learn how to make budget requests on Sept. 17 from noon to 1 p.m. in CUB 212.
Guest Speakers Address Printing Issues
Ryan, Franza, Wagner, and Odess-Harnish then joined the meeting via Zoom to discuss the printers on campus. In last week’s meeting, students brought up printing issues as a topic of concern, including problems with backups, jamming, and access. Since then, Tess Rodgers ‘22 started a petition that reached over 350 signatures, grounds for Senate to bring the concern up with administration.
Ryan outlined the events leading up to the petition, noting that the printers were initially removed from the library for COVID concerns in 2020, with the intention to reduce high-touch surfaces in an area of congestion. He shared that the printers posed issues prior to their removal from the library, causing the library staff to pitch in to fix paper jams, refill printer paper, and replace toner.
The printer machines, he explained, fall under the umbrella of Information Technology, rather than the library. “The machines are not property of the library which means that the [library] staff is not responsible for those machines or taking care of the maintenance,” Ryan said.
Ryan explained that the printers come at a high cost and require many resources. He reported that Gettysburg uses around 2 million sheets of paper a year, costing $12,000 and $14,000. These costs are exacerbated by problems with the printers, when jams and backups ultimately create more paper waste. “So much paper is wasted when our printers are not operating properly,” Ryan said.
Quan facilitated the conversation, proposing possible solutions and compromises for the guest speakers. She suggested asking faculty to limit the amount of printing they require of students, to which Ryan said “we can encourage people to do that, but we cannot mandate.”
Quan also proposed stationing a member of IT in the library to take care of the printers instead of the library staff. Ryan thought it was an “intriguing solution,” though mentioned concern about staffing and inability to work late shifts in the library: “IT has seen a loss with workers, so I don’t know how many people would be available,” he said.
Tom Cassara ‘23 voiced concern about putting the responsibility on students who work at the CUB desk to fix the printers. Ryan reiterated that they chose to utilize student workers at the CUB Desk due to their vicinity to Plank and the fact that they work shifts outside of regular business hours. “It was not an ideal solution but it was something that we mutually came up with,” Ryan said.
Ryan mentioned that one possible idea for changing the printing system could be a print release system, where students get a set budget to print, and send their job to a particular printer on campus. Other colleges such as Allegheny College and Penn State Berks Campus use this system.
The meeting did not result in a conclusive solution.
Student Concerns
After nominating some of the affinity group leaders, the crowd brought up student concerns, including high parking ticket fees from the Department of Public Safety, delays in Facilities requests, and littering near the Ice House Complex.
Quan reported that charging electric cars costs 40 cents per hour, and once the car is fully charged, a $5 parking fee gets added for every extra hour it’s parked. Jon Allen reported that he shared the student complaints about employment from last week’s meeting to Human Resources Director Jen Lucas.
Next week, Senate plans to go through with new business, amendments, and nominations for the remainder of affinity group leaders.
