CATS seeks student input
The Academic Technology Advisory Committee is in the process of completing a student survey to identify how technology funds should be used on campus.
Eastern students pay a technology fee that helps fund the labs and other resources offered on campus.
Michael Hoadley, assistant vice president for academic technology, said students’ input is important.
“We try to hear all voices on campus to find where these funds should best be spent,” Hoadley said. “Because it is their money, I would think the students would have a vested interest in helping us make those decisions.”
The survey is set up to ask the students what kind of technology they have brought to school, what kind of technology services they use on campus and what they would like to see in the future. The 16-question survey should take fewer than 10 minutes to complete.
The student technology fee subcommittee, a part of ATAC, will review the results of the survey.
“They will look at the data and compare it to what they have been talking about and use that information to see if our ideas are consistent with the viewpoint of the students,” Hoadley said.
They will then make a recommendation to the rest of the ATAC members on what they feel is the best way to use the money.
“We want to know if the students want to have video cameras they can check out, do they want training in using software,” Hoadley said. “We have asked these kinds of questions on the survey.”
Zach Caskey, a freshman business major from Marengo, is one of two student representatives who serve on the committee.
“Currently, we are at a crossroads where we need to start thinking about if the money should be spent to improve the labs, or if more people want to utilize their own technology, if we should bolster the network,” Caskey said. “The survey results will be used internally as a guideline to begin to plan.”
The ATAC will have the results for three weeks at the end of the semester to start planning for next year.
“Any chance we get to have student input, that is something we want to have,” Caskey said.
While the survey was intended to last two weeks, Hoadley has decided to continue the survey for an additional week, ending it April 15.
The survey can be found on Eastern’s Web site at http://www.eiu.edu/~cats/atacsurvey/survey.
Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7942
