English graduate students receive $10,000 grant

Troy Richardson is neither a student nor a regular employee of the English department, but he is immediately recognized when he enters the office. Since January, Richardson, the service manager of Office Ware, has made five trips to fix the aging copy machine, which has produced nearly three million copies since 2001.

This semester, the department has been pushing to limit its graduate assistants' access to photocopy machines in an attempt to save $8,000 this semester. Michael Humphries, chairman of the English department, said the standard for copies has always been 750 copies per semester, not including exams and syllabi, but the department never strictly enforced it.

In the past, Humphries said graduate assistants would try to photocopy a journal article or book chapter that can run up to 50 pages for class. And with 20 to 35 students, that means 400 to 500 copies for one story alone. Humphries said this poses a problem for him and his office because there are only a few student workers and one administrative assistant due to cutbacks. "It takes up a great deal of time for our staff," Humphries said. He also said he is trying to push graduate assistants to use the electronic reserve service the library offers.

The service, which began five years ago, allows graduate assistants to make one copy of an article or chapter, then take it to the library and put it on the library's website, Humphries said. With the $8,000 saved, Humphries said the department would put the money into a travel account, which will go toward conferences for faculty and graduate assistants. "If we have an electronic resource, then why not make use of it," Humphries said. David Leitner, an English graduate assistant, said although this electronic reserve is convenient, it can be problematic for students.

Leitner said the library's staff puts any file name they want on it, which includes the title of the article, the author or the first sentence of the article. Since the students do not know the name of the file, they are forced to download up to 50 files to find the one they are looking for, Leitner said. To sidestep the problem with the electronic reserve, Leitner and his colleague came up with a different idea.

The two applied for a grant from the Graduate Technology Fee Advancement committee, which gives about $40,000 a year to graduate assistants on campus. They were granted $10,000, which will give them six to seven new computers, laser printers and wireless hubs, Leitner said. This grant will allow for one printer in almost every graduate assistant office, Leitner said.

And at almost 2 cents a page, Leitner said, the printer will be less expensive than using the copy machine. "This is going to be cheaper for graduate assistants, cheaper for the department and better for our students," Leitner said.