VUWSA President Joel Cosgrove’s platform of free printing and internet during last year’s general election appears to have been a shallow promise, with Stuart Haselden, Director of Information Technology Services (ITS), pointing out that even the incorporation of costs in compulsory student fees would be “not possible.”
Contradicting his promises of “free” printing and internet, Cosgrove is in fact attempting to incorporate these computing costs into the compulsory fees that students pay at the beginning of each year.
However, Haselden explains that because the amount of printing each student carries out differs highly, it would be impossible and even unfair to include a set amount into compulsory fees.
“Usage differs from student to student.”
Furthermore, when asked last week if Cosgrove had approached him regarding his election promise, Haselden replied: “Yes, recently.” Cosgrove had asserted to Salient several weeks ago that he had met with staff from ITS and that free printing and internet were in development.
Cosgrove describes those who have labelled him a liar as “naïve.” Insisting that his election promise is something he continues to strive for, he acknowledged that “printing will be harder to achieve [by the end of the year] than free internet.”
He expressed skepticism at the idea that “free” printing was impossible and referred to polytechnics that allow students to print their first 500 pages without cost.
In the meantime, Haselden is looking at other tertiary providers to see how they have solved this problem in the past.
According to both Haselden and Cosgrove, free internet, or internet usage without chargeby- usage, is likely to be up and running by the end of this year.
Cosgrove believes internet is “more of a priority” to students than printing, therefore “it makes sense [that] free ‘non-user pays’ internet [is achieved first].”
Both Haselden and Cosgrove stressed that they are continuing to make progress with computing services. Haselden said that he anticipates a “general improvement” at the University during 2008.
With reporting from Jenna Powell