Brown to reconsider print quota

Boston University’s change in printing policies was hasty but will now come under reconsideration, BU President Robert Brown said.

Brown spoke to members of the Student Union Tuesday night about student concerns and BU’s strategic plan for the future. About 60 student representatives and staff attended the Student Union’s third General Assembly meeting, which centered on Brown and the Printing Taskforce Proposal.

In comparison to other large, urban research facilities, BU’s printing policies ‘put us in the middle of the pack,’ Brown said.

‘I do realize that the implementation of our policy in the time we gave our faculty was inappropriate,’ Brown said.

The Printing Taskforce, headed by College of Arts and Sciences senior Anant Shukla and CAS junior John Bavlsik, proposed an increase of 150 pages per student, to 250 pages total.

Shukla and Bavlsik said their research showed 45 to 50 pages are needed per student per class.

‘The current print quota doesn’t fulfill academic requirements,’ Shukla said. ‘We pay 12 cents for every page after we reach the quota, when the national average is about nine cents.’

Bavlsik said over the course of their discussion with BU administration, they have not encountered anyone unwilling to re-evaluate the policy.

Print Quota Committee spokeswoman Amy Mahler, a College of Communication junior, said the nearly unanimous vote at Tuesday’s meeting meant the proposal will be moving to the administration for review.

‘It was definitely interesting to get an apology from the very top of the administration,’ Mahler said.

Brown also discussed BU’s strategic plans. He said the first goal of the strategic plan is to supply an education that is broad, deep, and provides opportunities for interdisciplinary study that go outside of the classroom.

The strategic plan also aims to increase the quality of the residential experience on campus, which is crucial, considering over 80 percent of students live on campus all four years.

Brown said integrating the many paths of BU through the ‘One B.U.’ initiative will ‘make the university as porous as possible.’

Future plans involve designing a new East Campus student services center combined with a new dining facility, which could break ground as early as summer 2010, he said.

‘We are very interested in a change in structure, and we are trying to create a one-stop shop for students,’ Brown said.

Students and staff have shown concern over the university’s budget given the economic downturn over the past year, Brown said.

‘A year ago, the seriousness of the economic state was clear,’ Brown said. ‘We took control of the expenditures, and we were among some of the first universities to do so. We were trying to be prudent.’

Brown said retaining students and faculty was a matter of resource management. About $10 million was spent on need-based scholarships, which saw more applicants because of the recession.’

In addition, Brown said, BU is embarking on several sustainability programs, including converting to cleaner fuels in dorm buildings and launching the Mugar Project, which will save 2 million kilowatt hours of energy annually.

Once Brown opened the floor, students questioned BU’s proposed BSL-4 Laboratory.’ Brown said the research on infectious diseases is important to BU so the facility must continue to operate as one of the leading centers in the world.

‘We have the scientists to do it, we can operate this lab in the safest most ethical conditions and that’s why we’re moving forward,’ Brown said.