At Monday’s meeting, Oakland University Student Congress discussed discontinuing its support for the free Scantron giveaway program, instead passing the service on to Kresge Library and using the saved money for new initiatives.

“Currently we spend $2,500 a semester on Scantrons provided to students, and that was originally done as an incentive to students to get traffic in the office and get our name out,” Administrative Assistant Christina Quigley said. “What I’m seeing is that it’s become something that’s expected and demanded.”

Quigley said students get upset when Scantrons are unavailable. “It’s not an incentive anymore. It’s not something that people appreciate, but something that’s expected. I feel that the reasoning for supplying those Scantrons is not doing what it was intended.”

One of the reasons why OUSC is considering the change is because students often take more than the allotted two per person, which leads to OUSC running out of Scantrons quickly.

“I’m constantly restocking them,” Quigley said, as she witnesses students who come in and pick up a whole stack.

“I’ve had the janitor come in with a whole stack of them that someone that just tossed on top of the trash. This isn’t something that’s appreciated anymore. I see people come in and get upset when we don’t have them. It’s turned into something it wasn’t intended for.”

Student Body Vice President Amy Ring said she also supported using the money spent on Scantrons for something else.

“In my opinion, I just feel like we could use the $2,500 when we’re saving each student that maybe uses that service, that maybe knows about it, one dollar when they could go to the bookstore, or potentially other departments that could start providing the service for free,” Ring said.

While the Scantrons would no longer be available in the OUSC office, students could still find them in Kresge Library.

“They do a great job, a much better job than we do because they have people on staff, at monitoring how many Scantrons go out all the time,” Student Body President Brandon Gustafson said. “What we’re looking into doing is not strictly swiping the Scantrons from campus totally, but looking to talk to the library and having them take on the service.”

The Scantrons would still be available through the end of the fall semester, and OUSC will formally discuss the issue when it votes on its budget for winter 2011.

The OUSC also passed a resolution supporting the OU Recreation Center’s extension of its Monday through Thursday operating hours.

The resolution, which was sponsored by legislator Nick McCormick, cited increased traffic flow at the Rec Center in the past academic year as one reason why the hours should be extended.

The extended hours call for the Rec Center to be open until midnight Monday through Thursday on a trial basis. It is currently open until 11 p.m. The new hours would take effect for the upcoming winter semester.

New members that were approved to the Student Services Committee on Monday include Sarah Tilden and Christina Matles.

Louie Alkasmikha was approved as a member of the Research and Review Committee.

John Ajlouny was approved as the new Judiciary Chair, replacing Daud Yar, who resigned.

“First of all, I just want to get more involved,” Ajlouny said. “I also think it’s a really good chair position for my law and political background.

“I’m a committee member already, so I know what the chair is about, and I think I’d do a very good job.”