The Campus Life Council finalized a resolution calling for discussions about the installation of printers in residence halls at their meeting Monday.
Grant Schmidt, student body vice president and chair of the Task Force on Technology and Study Spaces in Dorms, presented the resolution his group created to the council.
The resolution is "encouraging the installation of printers within each residence hall," Schmidt said.
The resolution passed with 14 votes, with one council member abstaining.
"This exact resolution will now be proposed in Senate and will be voted upon," Schmidt said, who added that the resolution will then be presented to University Vice President for Student Affairs Fr. Mark Poorman, who has two weeks to respond.
"This has been something that's been a issue since I've been at Notre Dame," Schmidt said. "A lot of students feel that it would be a great convenience for students to have printers in their residence hall."
Currently, there are Pharos printers in 10 dorms, and the council's resolution recommends that printers be added to remaining dorms. The first ten were installed as part of a pilot program.
Schmidt said while additional printers may be a convenience, his task force came up with multiple arguments in addition to being convenient, stating that the additional printers were "something that students would greatly appreciate for a number of reasons."
The resolution notes in the recent Student Survey completed by Student Government, 91.1 percent of respondents felt that there was a current need for a printer in their dorm, or they already had a printer located in their dorm.
The document also states that under current circumstances "some students are required to walk across campus for printer usage which, depending on the hour of the day or night, leads to safety concerns."
Devin Fee, the Student Senate Campus Technology Committee chair, said now is a prime opportunity for the installation of more printers in dorms. The University's contract with Xerox expires at the end of the calendar year, and Fee said the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and Procurement are negotiating a purchase of used Xerox printers which would be installed in dorms.
The new dorm printers - and the existing ones - would be maintained by OIT as part of the agreement.
"If we can support OIT on this issue, and get Fr. Poorman's voice on this, it has a pretty high chance of success," Fee said.
In other CLC news:
u Schmidt said his Task Force has arranged for the east side of South Dining Hall to be available as study space between Dec. 14 and 18. The two dining rooms on the south side of North Dining Hall will also be available. In addition, the Career Center will donate the interview rooms for use as group study space.
u Student Government parliamentarian Nicole O'Connor, chair of the Task Force on Student Safety, said her group is continuing to gather information for the creation of an off-campus Web site.
"Right now we've divided up the assignments and we're gathering information," she said.
The Web site will include information on restaurants, shopping, safety and crime prevention, she said.
u Student Body President Bob Reish said the Task Force on New Student Introduction is continuing discussions about the current policies and procedures dealing with transfer orientation. Reish said he met with Dan Saracino, assistant provost for Admissions, about the issue.
