Marineth Sierra –
After seeing entirely too many campus announcements in our inboxes and a high saturation of flyers last school year, members of the Illinois College Student Senate decided it was time to bring campus monitors to Illinois College.
These large, new monitors are intended to cut down on the amount of annoying campus emails and copious amount of flyers by displaying current and relevant announcements and event information in a modern, creative, and interesting way.
Last spring semester, Senate Leadership met with the Information Technology (IT) Department to discuss their budget and how many monitors they were going to purchase. They were able to decide on the maximum spending of $5,000, enough to install three large monitors which were mounted Kirby Hall, Parker Hall, and Caine Student Center.
Now student organizations, athletics, and various departments are able to promote their meetings, competitions, and social events through these displays. “It will be useful to not only the clubs around school, but to the faculty and sport departments as well,” says Jovanny Nava, President of Student Senate.
As far as taking care of the issues with high volumes of campus emails, students have mixed feelings. When asked if he thought he had received less campus announcement emails since last year, sophomore Samuel Welbourne responded, “not even a bit.”
When asked the same question, senior math and physics major Aaron Schneider said, “If they have reduced campus announcements, I wouldn’t have noticed because I read select announcements. Either way, I don’t mind. The TVs are a good supplement.”
It appears that students who do notice the new monitors find them beneficial, if only for the few moments in passing. Junior biology major Tanya Ifft says she doesn’t really pay much attention to the new monitors, “Maybe if I’m waiting for someone or class or something; It’s useful to others probably more than me.”
Illinois College employees a full-time graphics designer who also focuses on designing everything that is being displayed on the new monitors.
If anyone is interested in announcing any events or important information to the school, they may do so by going on Connect2 under the Students tab, on the left hand side. Just click Forms and Documents >Handouts > Digital Display Program.
President Nava commented, “It’s a campus effort. Our goal is to get as many campus monitors around the school as possible.” Currently, there are seven monitors on display around campus.
Marineth Sierra, from Miami, Florida, is a freshman majoring in Mass Communications with a Sociology minor. Marineth is involved in Student Activities Board, writer for The Rambler, member of the cheerleading squad, and a 2018 senator for Student Senate, along with being a member of several other clubs.
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