CORRECTIONS APPENDED (SEE BELOW)With the emergence of online directories such as Facebook and MySpace, the Student Union has started considering whether it should continue to fund the annual Novus New Student Facebook and Guide.

The proposal to remove the bylaw that provides funding for the guide needs two-thirds of the Senate's approval to pass; it was tabled at last Sunday's meeting because its sponsor felt there weren't enough senators present to vote on the matter.

The guide cost the Union about $8,000 last year including publication costs and a stipend for the student editor. Union Director of Executive Affairs Adam Gartner '07 said he didn't know off-hand how much advertising revenue Novus brought in but said last year's guide did not make that much money. But he said previous guides had taken in significant ad revenue.

Four years after the Union took on the responsibility of financing, producing and publishing the guide from Student Activities, the Union's ways and means committee-chaired by Senator-at-Large Andrew Brooks '09-submitted a proposal a few weeks ago to remove the bylaw as a cost-saving measure. Even if approved, the 2007-2008 new student guide would still be published as the Union had already selected a student to create the 2007-2008 Novus guide.

"Eight thousand dollars can go a long way toward a ton of other programming, and our budget is not that huge for a union government, so I think that money can be spent better elsewhere," Josh Karpoff, Senator for the Class of 2007, said.

Brooks said removing this bylaw would mean the Senate could decide each year whether or not to create the guide.

"What we've been working toward is seeing if there are ways we can cut our budget so that we are not wasting money on things that people don't appreciate and use the money on other things that people would like to see on campus," Brooks said.

Last month, the Union decided to remove monetary compensation as part of Student Union awards to favorite professors and teaching fellows as another cost-cutting measure, which Brooks also led.

"It requires a lot of effort to put it together and we want to make sure if we're putting effort into something, it's useful," Karpoff said, adding that much of the information about adjusting to campus life is given out during orientation anyway.

Karpoff said students don't need the Novus Guide to get to know their classmates anymore since Facebook has taken off in popularity.

Gartner said he wants to wait for this year's guide to come out before the Union decides whether to remove the bylaw. He said he wants to see what people think of the guide and how much revenue advertisements generate.

If the Union stops funding the guide, Karpoff said the first-years may be asked to buy the guide, or there may be no guide at all.

-Editor's note: Deputy Editor Jonathan Fischer was the editor of last year's Novus guide.


(Due to an editing error, this article originally implied at one point that the bylaw had already been passed and it reported that the Union constitution would be changed should the bylaw change pass. Also, the Student Union's decision to cut the monetary awards associated with teaching awards occurred last month.)