Student directories available
Doug Smeath, Assistant News Editor
For the first time at Utah State University, students now have a directory they can use to find each other’s phone numbers.
Associated Students of USU President Ben Riley first thought of the idea two years ago when running for ASUSU office.
After he was elected last year, a publisher called him and let him know that goal could be a reality.
“I realized this is something we could do,” he said.
The publishing company’s offer led Riley to begin forming plans for the directory, which was published through USU Marketing Services.
The directories are now available for students to pick up for free at various locations across the USU campus, including the Taggart Student Center and several other buildings.
ASUSU is also considering distributing them sometime this month to students living on campus during a “res-hall call.”
The directories include students’ telephone numbers and hometowns, and Riley said they were printed at no cost to students.
The cost of printing the directories was covered completely by advertising in the books, Riley said, and no money came from student fees.
Still, the new directories have a few problems Riley said ASUSU hopes to take care of for future directories. He said the minor problems are to be expected in any newly developed idea.
Among those problems is the fact that many students’ information is old or incorrect in the directories.
The most common error is that old telephone numbers are listed for some students.
Riley said this is because some students didn’t update their contact information on the USU Web site, at least not in time for the directories’ printing.
“What we’ve got to do is just do a better job publicizing it,” Riley said.
He said not enough students knew they needed to update their information, and he wants to make that fact more widely known in the future.
He hopes a reminder for students to update can be posted in more prominent places, including the main USU Web site and the Webmail page.
He said ASUSU looked into getting the information on those pages this year, “but Computer Services had some qualms with that.”
Riley said students are supposed to update their information whenever it changes, anyway, as it is the information the university uses to contact students and keeps in all its records.
Another concern for some students was that they were included in the directory even though they didn’t want to be.
Riley said he feels bad for students who, for whatever reason, didn’t want to be in the directory but ended up there.
“At the same time, I don’t know if we should not print one” because some students don’t want to be included, Riley said.
He said the benefits of the directory are worth it.
Riley said students who don’t want to be included in the directory may opt out of it when they update their information with the university – another fact he hopes to publicize more widely in the future.
Students who don’t opt out of inclusion are listed in the university’s Web directory anyway, Riley said, so their contact information can be found with or without the printed directory.
Despite these concerns, Riley said he sees the directory as a positive addition to the university, one that will help students for years to come.
“I think this is what student government is all about,” Riley said – not the printing of student directories but focusing efforts on creating a product that can be of use to students.