Park Student Government Association recently sent out a survey to students to gather information on how the newly installed student technology fee should be used.

Since then, students have been voicing their ideas and opinions on what they would like to see done with the technology fee for this school year.

According to PSGA President Jeremy Barnes, there were three points of interest the survey covered and PSGA wanted to bring to students’ attention.

These three topics were an installation of charging stations and placing them in high traffic areas on the campuses and charging capabilities installed into classrooms, upgrade the existing study rooms on the Kansas City area campuses and to implement a device rental or assignment system to increase student access to personal technology.

According to the survey, there are many options that could come with each point of interest.

Thompson Commons, Pirate Grounds, the Milsap Foyer, McAfee Memorial Library and the cafeteria around the Parkville campus have all been considered as possible locations for charging stations, as they are the buildings with highest traffic.

Results showed that 85 percent of students who filled out the survey – a total of 98 respondents – showed a moderate need for charging capabilities on campus.

With this option, PSGA hopes to explore opportunities to add wireless charging stations in classrooms and ensuring students have these capabilities in classrooms, whether their devices are wireless or not.

With the possibility of updating of technology in currently existing study rooms, this option would provide technology upgrades and collaboration software access to students who use the software frequently.

Of those students who took the survey, 84 percent indicated a need for these technology upgrades and collaboration.

As for implementing a device rental system in the school, a calculated 50 percent showed support towards using the technology fee for this purpose.

With the device rental system, students would be able to rent school iPads, Chromebooks and webcams.

Barnes said PSGA is exploring the idea of Park University assigning students their own Chromebooks upon their arrival to the university, so long as they are enrolled as a full-time student.

A Chromebook would equal around the same amount as what a full-time student would pay for one semester of the technology fee.

One opposition taken note in the survey was that 68 percent of the students demonstrated strong opposition towards adding more virtual applications.

For now, PSGA will be working with what they received from the survey and find a suitable way to start implementing the technology fee in the most beneficial way for students.

Look for future updates on the technology fee in upcoming issues of The Stylus.