Undergraduate Student Government (USG), with the division of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (AHSS), is currently pursuing funding for four to five new plasma screen television sets for the lobby of Sturm Hall. They are also investigating the possibility of replacing television sets on the Driscoll Bridge.

The Sturm Hall project is spearheaded by AHSS student senator Josh Wehe and Social Sciences student senator Rudy Alterio. The Driscoll Bridge project has been proposed by Sam White and off-campus senator Sam Estenson.

According to Wehe, a sophomore Philosophy and International Studies major from Alamosa, Colo., USG plans to purchase 45-50 inch flat-screen television sets to be mounted on the paneling in the lobby of Sturm Hall.

The TVs will stream information about student organization meetings, faculty lectures, news, weather and other campus events.

The new TVs will be designed after the interface in the Sturm College of Law.

Although there are some TVs on campus that serve a similar function now, Wehe claims these will be more modern, visible and placed in strategic locations.

Each TV is estimated to cost $4,000 dollars including installation, software and hardware, for a total of about $20,000.

Because USG does not have funds to cover the entire amount, Wehe said, negotiations are currently underway with Anne McCall, dean of AHSS, to fund part of the expense.

“Being the largest building on campus, Sturm Hall needs to represent DU as a 21st century university,” Wehe said. “That means investing in new technology.”

Because DU hosts numerous conferences each year, USG proposes adding the new TV sets will be an impressive addition for off-campus guests.

According to Wehe, the main obstacles include a rigid budget from the AHHS department which may not accommodate the new TVs and issues with the ownership of Sturm.

Kristin Altman, director of community relations and communication for the AHSS department, confirmed that Wehe approached the office about the possibility of funding and installing the TVs.

“We are definitely talking to Josh on the project, but he has taken the lead on figuring things out,” Altman said. “We are still in the developing stages of determining the source of funding.”

According to Altman, because Sturm Hall is a general education building, the Dean’s Office must work with the architect’s office to gain approval to for the TVs.

While nothing has been finalized, Altman said he hopes the TVs will be placed in the most well-used parts of the building.

“The Dean’s Office would like to see promotional information made accessible to students and users of the building,” said Altman. “From a logistical standpoint, the new technology would make it much faster to make changes and add new announcements. It would be a big improvement over posters, which are slow and use limited resources.”

“Unlike the Korbel School of International Studies, which is owned and funded through the Josef Korbel School, Sturm Hall is owned and managed by the DU architects’ office, and only occupied by the AHSS department,” said Wehe. “So, there needs to be approval from many different levels of bureacracy,”

Other options for the upgrade include the less ideal smartboards, which need to be upgraded more often and are not as efficient for USG’s purposes. While Wehe said they will continue to work on the TV project, he emphasized that school spirit is USG’s top priority this year.

“While funding the TVs is important, USG primarily wants to allocate more funds to student organizations,” said Wehe. “We have really amped up school spirit this year. The Pioneer Pregames before every hockey game are on USG’s dime, and we have increased funding for DU swag by 25-30 percent this year.”

The replacement of televisions in Driscoll Bridge has only been a topic of discussion for about two weeks in USG, according to off-campus senator Sam Estenson.

USG has only just started contacting facilities, discussing potential locations or pursuing funding for the projects.

According to Estenson, the main need he sees for new televisions in Driscoll is to remedy a need for information he and other off-campus students experience.

“As our student center, [Driscoll] ought to be the location for event advertising and support,” said Estenson. “Especially for those students who live off campus and don’t see regular posts around the school, a system like this that is put into place would be able to accomplish this and much more.”

The main advantage of the new TVs would be having several screens right next to each other, one of which would show a timetable of daily events and others depicting fun messages from USG, DUPB, the Lamont School of Music, Athletics, Greek Life and other student organizations.

There is a possibility that this complex would be located in Driscoll North.

So far, USG has met with technical support staff to learn how to better utilize the TVs that would be placed both in Sturm and in Driscoll.

They also want to know how to take advantage of the work that has already been done to run the existing screens in Driscoll.

The cost of the project has not been finalized yet.

USG plans to review a bill which would include a cost as well as draft a cost proposal for the division of Student Life in the near future.

USG is hoping to be prepared to install the new screens early in winter quarter.