Thanks to recent Student Assembly decisions, students can express their concerns about the East Campus construction project and may see lower textbook prices.
Students across the campus will voice what they think about the East Campus project after the Assembly confirmed a referendum Monday.
The East Campus Referendum, concerning the future renovation of Newing College and Dickinson Community, calls for an official vote Wednesday, Nov. 7, by undergraduate students that would clarify whether Binghamton University students support the project.
The East Campus Project will involve the destruction of the Newing and Dickinson communities and the reconstruction of both in Newing’s current location. The two communities would share a collegiate center, containing one kitchen and two separate dining halls.
The two communities, which are currently BU’s only dorms with all corridor-style rooms, would be rebuilt with a new interior layout. Residents would have semi-private bathrooms, with one bathroom allocated for every three bedrooms.
‘We’re hoping about 1,000 students will vote so we really know where they stand,’ said Matt Landau, Student Association vice president of academic affairs.
Students can vote from 1 to 7 p.m. in the dining halls and in the University Union. The ballot will ask voters whether they support the shared dining space as well as the move away from traditional corridor style living.
Landau co-wrote the proposal for the vote with SA representative Bradley Small, who was last year’s Newing College Council president.
‘The Student Association and its representatives need to know that we are fighting for what they want,’ Small said. ‘If the referendum results contradict what we’ve been fighting for, then we’ll stop. If it supports our argument we will provide the results to the administration. It is crucial that a lot of students vote in order for this project to be a success.’
Landau was also the author of Check Plus for Learning, a proposal that aims to lower the average cost of textbooks for students. According to the College Board, students spent approximately $818 each semester on textbooks alone in 2004. Landau estimates the current figure to be almost $1,000 per semester.
The plan, which was passed last week, involves asking professors to submit their list of required textbooks at a reasonably earlier date. This will allow students more time to find textbooks at an affordable price.
The proposal also requests that professors use the same textbook if they are teaching the class for both fall and spring semesters within the same academic year. If a class is offered with several professors in the same semester, all professors would be asked to use the same textbooks.
Professors would also be made aware of the prices of the books they choose to assign as part of the bookstore’s confirmation process. This intends to make professors more aware of how much they are asking students to spend for a single class.
One of the most significant points of Landau’s textbook proposal plans to prevent students from wasting money on books that they will rarely use. Landau suggests that professors should not assign a textbook as required reading unless they plan to include at least 50 percent of the textbook’s material in the course.
‘It’s really frustrating when I have to buy an expensive book that I only end up using a couple of times,’ said Katherine James, a sophomore anthropology major. ‘It would help a lot if I knew which books were really worth buying.’
In addition to working with professors to lower textbook prices, the plan includes setting up a book rental program that would offer students the option of buying the book after the course is completed.
Landau said that if meeting with BU administrators goes as expected, students can begin to see a decrease in textbook prices as early as the fall 2008 semester.