Ball State University's Student Government Association has been working on something big during the past year. Wednesday's SGA meeting was live streamed online for the first time.
Last week's meeting was streamed live in a test run that was meant to confirm password protection and work out the other technical issues. The test went well and all the problems found were fixed.
This week, the stream was finalized and the Web site completed.
SGA President Beth Cahill said she was very pleased with the event and how the first live stream went.
"This is the first time this has happened since SGA started, and we've been trying to get it going for some time now," Cahill said. "It's awesome."
Jeff Higgens, the secretary of information and technology, said he had the idea last year to stream the meetings live in order for students to be aware of what their government is doing. He began work on it, and a year later, it was finished.
The live stream is a part of the Cardinal Call, an initiative of Cardinal Impact to bring government to the students. It also includes a 24-hour hotline for students to voice concerns about campus life and other issues regarding the student government.
The first Wednesday meeting live stream had seven viewers, but Michael Spillman, assistant chair of the telecommunications department, said that after a few weeks and some promotion, the live stream will be more successful.
"I think they [SGA] have a pretty good chance of people picking up on this," he said. "You take the so-called casual person who might not have paid attention before, but might now pay attention,"
The live stream also gives the students watching a chance to hear what is going on with campus life and the laws being passed and proposed.
"I'd want to try to learn about anything that benefits me," junior early education major Jared Sykes said.
Spillman said any time you put anything online, students are more apt to use it because the Internet is part of their culture.
"They've been around it all their lives," he said.
For more information or to watch next Wednesday's meeting go to thecardinalimpact.com/forum/live/.
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