University Centers has proposed changes to posting policies and the “”blue forming”” process, which student organizations must undergo to use the Price Center ballrooms, theater, plaza and Porter’s Pub. The changes will go into effect in fall quarter if approved.
The proposed policy for posting in the Price Center would create a first-come, first-served procedure in which those wishing to post banners would be allowed to post only one, must check out a poster sleeve and must hang their poster, sleeved, in a designated location in the Price Center.
As the policy is currently worded, all posters displayed must be event-related, stating the location, date and time of an event as well as the sponsoring organization.
One of the main concerns the policy was drafted to address is safety.
“”Banners often times are weighted with sticks or rocks or wadded up newspapers taped to them, and we’ve had incidents where they have actually fallen on people,”” said Lynn Cacha, the Price Center’s assistant director of operations.
“”There was actually a full soda can that fell on someone’s head because it fell off of a banner.””
The A.S. programming office is concerned that event publicity will be severely limited by the new policy.
“”It is hard enough to publicize events already — coming down on the posting in the Price Center I think is an absolute disaster. Marketing statistics have shown that you need to see something seven times before you recognize it as an event, in any media,”” said Bianca Daly, publicist for the A.S. programming office.
If enacted, the new policy would be amendable, Cacha said.
“”We said one [banner] at first, but it was with the understanding that there is going to be a trial-and-error process to see if one was not enough or if students wanted to post more than one. Obviously, probably, we wouldn’t have all 20 banner sleeves up at a any given time, so there would be some flexibility there,”” Cacha said.
Flyer posting would also be limited to one flyer per column or area of the Price Center. The new mandate was proposed to make posting more fair for all organizations, Cacha said.
“”It was so that people weren’t having these posting wars or trying to post over each other and people getting upset that either their postings were torn down or someone posted on top of theirs, if we just generically say that we would like to limit it to just one or two per location then hopefully people will be courteous and allow others to post,”” Cacha said.
University Centers’ publicity department is concerned that this new single flyer policy won’t address the issue of tearing down flyers, but will make the situation worse.
“”Posters get torn down and posted over anyway — if we are only allowed one it is going to be so difficult to get the word out,”” Daly said.
The proposed policy and procedures also address the issue of “”blue forming.”” Currently, student organizations must begin the blueform process to use programming areas at least two weeks prior to an event. The new policy would increase the preparation time to five weeks.
The goal of the new blue-form process is to be able to enact a wait-list option for high-demand programming areas. This wait-list option is meant to “”serve the highest number of student organizations possible so they can do their events,”” Cacha said.
Before any new procedure or policy is enacted, it must first be approved by the University Centers Advisory Board. The policy will be discussed and voted on at the UCAB meeting June 3.
“”I think there are some definite issues that need to be worked out,”” said UCAB chair James Lynch. “”I think the proposal has some flaws. UCAB will probably hear some good ideas from council about what to do.””
