Everything is moving online these days, and the Tiger Cub is no exception.
After a vote from the SGA senate, it decided to make the Tiger Cub completely paperless.
With a past budget of $26,850, the decision to run exclusively online began with the administration and worked its way to the SGA senate.
“The undercurrent for the Tiger Cub specifically was pulled from an administration level just because the University started the policy website online,” said Curry Stevenson, SGA treasurer. “Some of that kind of trickled down to us from upper administration about the printing and to look at it because you know (the money) is allocated between six other student organizations.”
In the past, the Tiger Cub was printed in the front of the student planner supplied by the University.
“It was only distributed to freshmen during Camp War Eagle, but it was available to all students in the bookstore,” said Vanessa Tarpos, SGA vice president.
The decision to make the Tiger Cub paperless wasn’t random.
Stevenson said the accreditation given by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools mandates certain policies, and those policies recently changed.
“How it used to be was the accreditation … used to have a policy which requires you to hand every student a copy of the actual policies on academics, student conduct and everything like that,” Stevenson said. “That has changed. Now it’s just an online form.”
Before the official decision could be made, Tarpos said SGA went through several channels.
“We had surveys conducted, proposals presented and the (Communication) Board discussed it,” Tarpos said. “There were a lot of third parties involved.”
SGA also considered if a print edition of the Tiger Cub was worthwile.
“We make a recommendation from our level about the Tiger Cub,” Stevenson said. “We (ask), ‘Is it necessary anymore?’ We do have the policy online, and this is $26,000 of students’ money that could be better used somewhere else, and that was kind of our thoughts.”
Tarpos said the students were a big part of their decision.
“When it’s student money, when they are getting charged, when their parents are getting charged every semester, it may seem small, but it can lead to a big pool of money that we have to spend responsibly,” Tarpos said.
Putting the Tiger Cub online could result in students not reading the policies.
“It’s really their choice,” Stevenson said. “Every student should know it is their responsibility to read (the polices). You almost sign a contract when you come to school that you are responsible for abiding by all the outlined polices, and if you break them there are consequences.”
At the beginning of the year, Ainsley Carry, vice president of student affairs, sent an email to the student body encouraging them to read the Tiger Cub online, Stevenson said.
The Tiger Cub committee submitted the paperwork requesting the $26,000 budget, but they were turned down.
Tarpos said the money was split between the other organizations that SGA governs.
All of the policies included in the Tiger Cub can be found online at www.auburn.edu/tigercub.
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