Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Student Senate votes tonight on whether to spend about $4,000 from the reserve account on electronic voting devices for use in meetings.
KANSAN
The vote on the electronic voting devices, commonly known as clickers, comes in the wake of a dispute over the accuracy of vote tallies at a full Senate meeting two weeks ago.
Matthew Shaw, Heidelberg, Germany, sophomore, freshman/sophomore College of Liberal Arts and Sciences senator and author of the legislation to fund the clickers, said the $4,000 required to fund the clickers would mostly be a one-time registration cost. Once the registration is paid, Student Senate would be able to use the clickers for as long as it wanted.
The $4,000 to fund the clickers would come from the Student Senate reserve account, which consists of money from student fees.
Shaw said, that one of the many goals of using the clickers is to ensure accurate voting.
“The number one benefit is that it creates a voting record,” Shaw said. “Senators won’t be able to say whatever they want about their voting record.”
This is not the first time the legislation will be voted on by full Senate.
Last year, Shaw and Mason Heilman, Lawrence sophomore and residential senator, co-authored two bills, which were sponsored by Adam McGonigle, Wichita sophomore and chair of the Senate Executive Committee. One bill put in the Senate rules and regulations that senators needed to vote using the clickers, the other bill funded the clickers. The bill to change the legislation passed, the bill to fund the clickers did not.
Shaw said that he hopes the issue will be resolved tonight.
“It’s ironic that a bill designed to increase the speed and efficiency of Senate is taking such a slow and inefficient path,” Shaw said. “It’s been in the system forever.”
Shaw said that potential problems with the clickers have been accounted for within Senate, and the legislation ensures that senators can’t vote on more than one clicker.
The clickers would be kept in the Student Senate office when full Senate was not in session. Senators would check out their assigned clicker at the beginning of meetings and check it back in at the end of meetings.
Curtis Hall, Geography lecturer, previously used the clickers in two courses he teaches. He said he no longer uses the clickers because of problems with them.
Hall said that students had trouble registering with the system and were unable to be graded for quizzes they took using the clickers.
He also said that he didn’t see a problem with Senate using the clickers and that there were benefits to using them in the classroom.
“You can attempt to teach a point and ask immediately for feedback,” Hall said.
McGonigle said he anticipates that the clicker legislation will be resolved tonight.
“The executive staff is looking for direction,” McGonigle said. “We care not so much about whether or not we have clickers, but we care about getting this resolved and starting to focus on issues outside of our office.”
— Edited by Amelia Freidline
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Comments
Senate votes on buying clickers
I'm in disbelief. . . We cannot fund groups for worthwhile causes but yet Senate wants to waste $4000 on clickers because of their inability to accurately count votes.
I'll donate a ream of paper, cut it into ballots, and write every senator's name on the top with a Crayola marker so that they can brag about what they did and didn't vote for.
How much are the batteries going to cost me in student fees next year?
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