November 14, 2008

S.A. Hears Student Perspectives On Download Storage Limits

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The Student Association held its weekly meeting yesterday in Willard Straight Hall.
Moran Nachum ’12 used the open microphone portion to bring forward concerns he had with the 10 gigabyte a month computer capacity limit. Nachum, who says he recently received a notification that he had used 95% of his storage capacity for this month, says the rule is not only irksome to many students but counterproductive to the flow of information and education. Nachum contended unlimited download capacities translates to unlimited access to information, something a large intellectual community should be conducive to.
S.A. President Ryan Lavin encouraged Nachum to look over past minutes of S.A. meetings, available online, for further background of how the S.A. has been working to make the downloading limits more student friendly. Lavin also noted that the CIT Committee of the SA would continue to work with the administration on the policy.
“This student voiced an important concern regarding the negative affect Cornell’s technology policies are having on all students by limiting their access to knowledge and information at 10 gigabytes a month,” said Andrew Brokman ’11, the transfer representative for the S.A.
Nachum also brought up PeopleSoft, the much criticized software system that controls pre-enrollment. Nachum questioned the legitimacy of the site, noting the founder’s financial connections to Cornell, and contended better use should be made of student’s tuition money.
“As people who pay that $50,000 a year, we deserve more input on where that money is going,” said Nachum.
Moving to the business of the day, Mandy Hjellming, Tyler Coatney and Liz Rapoport ’09 of the Slope Day Programming Board presented the statistics of Slope Day 2008. Statistics analyzed included the percent of attendees by class year and college, as well as statistics on drinking. Facts from previous year’s festivities enable the S.A. to better plan for this year’s Slope Day.
The meeting finished out with a discussion of passing a resolution encouraging President David Skorton and other University leaders to take action in the Republic of the Congo, where massive human rights violations are taking place. Nathaniel Houghton and Nate Baker ’11 from Cornellians for the Congo presented the case, and S.A. members agreed to urge Skorton to form a President’s Council on the issue and collaborate with other universities to stop the egregious war crimes. The resolution passed despite many members questioning the efficacy of such a resolution.