As early as Fall 2007, students could be reading constantly updated news scrolling across a screen while eating lunch at the Atrium.
The system will be available earlier than expected because Provost Terry King approved funding last week for a graduate assistant position to run it. Previously, the system was not expected to be working until Spring 2008 at the earliest, Asher Lisec, Student Government Association president, said.
SGA is leading the project for installation of the screen, which is a news ticker that will be constantly updated with campus news. The ticker has not been purchased, so the size, cost and location are not determined, Lisec said.
The ticker will show information from the Daily News, University Communications and NewsWatch and NewsLink, TV news programs Ball State University students help create. The graduate assistant will be in charge of managing and organizing the information, Lisec said.
SGA, University Computing Services and the Office of Information and Technology have done most of the work for the news ticker, but Lisec said they needed help from the administration to find money for it.
"This has really been a big project and Dr. [O'Neal] Smitherman has really emphasized the project being done by just SGA and so we didn't really get any administrative help until Dr. King agreed to help with graduate assistantship," she said.
Smitherman is the vice president for information and technology.
While he is waiting on more details before firming up the position, King said he was excited about the ticker and wants to help make sure SGA gets what it needs to make it work.
"For us the key factor is if we are going to do this we want it to be first rate and for it to be first rate we need to have things up there all the time and timely," he said.
Having a graduate assistant would make that possible, he said. The assistant would be part of the Department of Telecommunications, and King said he could find the money to pay for it, although he did not know yet how much the assistantship would cost.
Lisec and King met last week to discuss details of the position and the help SGA will need from the provost and president, Lisec said. Involving the administrators is important at this point in the project because something this big needs as much upper-level support as possible, she said.
"Anytime you go and talk to one administrator about a project, and then to another, you have to make sure they are talking about it and know what each other is saying so you have administrative backing," Lisec said.
After meeting with SGA, King said he would work with President Jo Ann Gora and Nancy Carlson, chairwoman of the Department of Telecommunications, to finalize creating the assistantship. Then Carlson can find someone to fill the position, he said.
"It's intriguing," King said. "I think it could be a really valuable thing for the student faculty and staff to be able to see the news as it happens."
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