Since 2009, Saint Xavier University’s digital monitor system has provided students, faculty and staff with campus announcements and news in a digital format. Recently, The Xavierite set out to gather details on these monitors, including their overall purpose and possibilities for the future.
Jennifer Younker, Executive Director of Marketing and Communication said, “The digital monitor system was purchased by the previous President as an additional way to inform the SXU Community about events and news in conjunction with our campus news system at the time.”
Currently, there are eight monitors around campus which display the same sort of news and events.
Younker explained, “Many of the monitors display University event messaging, but there are a few monitors that are location-specific such as those in the library or the President’s office.”
Regarding the monitors’ purpose, Younker said that it was “to create an additional avenue for communication of events and news to the campus community.”
Saint Xavier is not the first university to install TV monitors around its campus. Other universities and colleges have taken the same approach.
However, other institutions often use the monitors differently, for example, airing live TV broadcasts throughout university hours.
“The monitors are part of a web based solution that allows us to display messages on the screen through a closed circuit University-only system,” Younker said.
She continued, “They are not connected to a television source, but are used as a monitor to display the message we create visually with the software.”
Younker also explained that the monitors are used efficiently, “The monitors and software were purchased to create a close circuit display of events and University news that could create an extension to our other forms of communication to the campus.”
Katharine Arvia, a sophomore english/secondary education major, said that she has noticed the monitors around campus, “I assume they’re just for news or updates around campus because that’s all I ever see on them,” she explained.
Arvia went on to say that, “They are somewhat useful, but I think they can be used for better things rather than just the same [thing] over and over again.”
“I would like to see some of our sports games on there since a lot of people don’t actually go to the game. Or rather than the news ticker on the bottom of the screen, I’d like to see actual news like CNN.” Arvia concluded.
Jessica Hutchings, a sophomore biology major, said of the monitors, “I know there is a TV that is right outside the diner that tells us about upcoming events, but I never have time to look at them,” she explained.
She went on to say that “I think seeing the need in the TV would be helpful.”
As for technology in the fall, Younker said that “At this time, we are in a research phase for bringing a mobile application to campus.”
Nermeen Shaabneh
News Editor