The EMU Board made no final decision at its Wednesday meeting on a proposed kiosk in the EMU, and board members said the issue will likely be unresolved until next school year.
Campus Link, a national company that installs information centers in student unions, previously pitched its product to the board on March 29. The business specializes in installing booths that provide free services such as computer terminals offering students access to the Internet, e-mail accounts and telephones. The service is paid for by local and national advertising.
Although the board put the decision on hold, a volunteer committee of board members presented their research on Campus Link.
Student Senate President and EMU Board member Jessica Timpany addressed her concerns with the Campus Link project. Timpany said a specification she wants to see in the terminal is the display of advertising from local Eugene businesses only, instead of mixed with national businesses.
Timpany also said the contract with Campus Link should be limited to two years to test the kiosk’s effectiveness. Campus Link has initiated contracts for periods of seven- or 10-years on other university campuses.
Campus Link President Matthew Dinnerman said the University’s project is different than other campuses because there has been “more sensitivity to commercialism.”
“The board would decide what they want even after it was built,” Dinnerman said. “It is our job to provide a service that the board, students and visitors of the student union are satisfied with.”
Dinnerman added that because the project is still in preliminary stages, flexibility would be required to address everyone’s concerns.
“We need to push forward and see what Campus Link can do for us,” EMU board member Bryan Myss said.
Myss said the volunteer committee’s duties will be to work on the specifics of what the structure would look like and include.
Timpany said she has taken into consideration some issues of controversy around kiosks, including the idea of “prostituting the EMU with advertising in a student-centered space.” Also, she said people are afraid the kiosk would be ugly in appearance.
Timpany pointed out during the board meeting that the information center at San Francisco State University was “badly vandalized.”
In response, Dinnerman said Campus Link has an insurance policy and that the California school’s information center was in the process of being taken down and reinstalled when the construction site was vandalized.
Myss said the board can decide what they want.
“We want them to work with us,” said Myss, who said he will be on the EMU Board next year. “If we don’t like it, we don’t have to accept it. … Until we actually sit down with them, it doesn’t mean [Campus Link] is coming.”