Council Pushes for Cost Control

The Undergraduate Council (UC) voted Wednesday night to press Harvard administrators to help shoulder computer printing fees and set up a loan system for the electronic response devices used in science lectures.

The move is the latest development in the UC’s Hidden Cost Campaign, an ongoing effort to reduce the numerous small charges that Harvard undergraduates face.

The council called on faculty departments to loan the classroom devices—known as Personal Response Systems (PRS) clickers—to students enrolled in their courses. Undergraduates would only have to pay the $43 cost if they did not return the device at the end of the semester, according to the proposal.

Many students use PRS clickers—which also track classroom attendance—for only one semester, UC members said, and there is no buy-back market presently in place for them. And unlike materials provided on reserve at libraries, students are required to purchase the devices.

Assistant Professor of Astronomy David Charbonneau, who teaches Science A-47, “Cosmic Connections,” and requires PRS clickers for his class, agreed that departments should be responsible for providing the instruments.

“We shouldn’t ask students to pay the fee because PRS clickers are quite different from textbooks, which presumably have a lasting value,” Charbonneau said.

But undergraduates, he added, have other recourses if they cannot afford the devices.

“If the students can demonstrate financial need, they can get a temporary loan to finance them,” he said.

Charbonneau also said that the Science Center used to loan the PRS devices to students, but switched to the present system because very few students returned them

This semester, five courses used PRS clickers, according to Science Center Lecture Media Services.

SAVING PAPER, SAVING CASH

The second Hidden Cost initiative, “Print Plus,” would allot students $20 a semester toward printing in Harvard libraries and computer labs. That amount would be placed on undergraduates’ printing accounts, which presently can only be accessed in College computer labs. UC representatives said they intend to lobby College administrators to expand the accounts for use in campus libraries as well.

The money would be separate from Crimson Cash—a debit account that students can access with a swipe of their ID card—because the UC wants to ensure that the allotted sum will go “specifically toward printing,” according to UC member Benjamin P. Schwartz ’10.

Schwartz co-sponsored the legislation with representatives Alyssa Q. Colbert ’10 and Tom D. Hadfield ’08.

The potential transition would not be too difficult to implement because “the technology infrastructure is already in place,” said Schwartz, who had contacted the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Computer Services to discuss the proposal.

Harvard currently allots students $1 a semester, a sum that undergraduates began receiving last year in order to print study cards for free, Schwartz said.

THESIS PROPOSAL

The UC also put forward a proposal at Wednesday’s meeting calling on the College to improve its thesis-advising system.

The plan, which received unanimous support from UC representatives, suggests the creation of a centralized database to facilitate pairings between undergraduates and advisors. It also recommends that the College compile a “best practices in thesis advising” manual to improve advising relationships.

Tracy E. Nowski ’07—the bill’s co-sponsor and the council’s student representative on the Committee on Undergraduate Education—said that the Advising Programs Office has expressed interest in helping implement the plan, which faces the hurdle of coordinating the priorities of faculty and administrators.

“Everyone involved in advising in every concentration,” Associate Dean of Advising Programs Monique Rinere wrote in an e-mail, “is thinking hard about ways in which to reach out to students more effectively, to get information to students in a timely way, and to help foster productive advising relationships.”

The bill will be formally brought before administrators and the Committee on Undergraduate Education at a meeting in the end of January, according to Colbert, the bill’s other co-sponsor.

—Staff writer Alexandra Hiatt can be reached at ahiatt@fas.harvard.edu.