The Council of Representatives (COR) discussed the ordering and distribution discount booklets for off-campus eateries for students at their meeting Tuesday. The booklets are expected to be available in early January.
An off-campus company will produce the cards and sell them to student government. Student government will then resell the books to students for $10.
The booklets will contain popular restaurants including Buffalo Wild Wings, Domino's, Papa John's, Chik-fil-A, Studebagels, Nick's Patio, Krispy Kreme, Taco Bell, Star of India and Tippecanoe Place.
They will also contain discounts to local restaurants that are not as often frequented by students.
"We want to integrate students in a lot of restaurants they already know, as well as restaurants that they maybe aren't familiar with," student body vice president Grant Schmidt said.
The discount booklet idea originated as a campaign promise Schmidt and student body president Bob Reish made last spring.
Reish said he thinks student interest in the booklets will be high.
"We did our own personal survey on our campaign site when we were running," he said.
When Reish presented the discount idea at Tuesday's COR meeting, he initially proposed buying 300 booklets. However, COR members said that student government should order more booklets because reordering would not be feasible.
Schmidt, however, said he was concerned that the booklets would go unused.
"We didn't want to way over-purchase them and have them sitting there and then expire," he said.
Student government will sell the booklets for $10. The price will allow student government to make a $5 profit on the books. They will only need to sell half of the books that they order and still break even.
COR members were also concerned about the distribution of the booklets. Off-campus president Billy Lyman was concerned about off-campus students' ability to buy booklets if they were sold on-campus. Off-campus students would have an especially difficult time securing a booklet if they were only sold through the dorms.
"You don't have to make it preferred for off-campus, just give them a fair chance," Lyman said.
Junior class president Kim Kyrouac stressed the importance of advertising the booklets.
"As long as it's advertised enough and off-campus students know enough, they're going to have an equal chance," she said. "As long as the only way you're spreading the news isn't through the dorms, then you're OK."
In other COR news:
uReish took time at the end of the meeting to congratulate Lyman for completing the off-campus listserv project. He said that the listserv has already sent two emails.
uReish also delivered COR members a memo that asked for suggested topics for next semester's agenda. Members were told to offer the suggestions in writing before the beginning of next semester.
uSchmidt also reminded COR members that the dining halls will be available as study space during exam week. He asked them to make sure that students are aware of this new program.
uReish announced that will send a copy of last week's COR minutes to Student Senate and to Bill Kirk, who spoke at the meeting.
