Students can offer feedback on the Ruckus downloading program in a survey later this week that will help the administration decide whether to keep the service at a charge of $50 per on-campus student next year, according to Julie Weber, director of Housing and Dining Programs.
So far about 1,500 students have registered with Ruckus and downloaded about 200,000 music tracks since the program has been offered free this semester as a trial, Weber said.
"You can look at it as, one half of students are using it, or one half of students are not using it," she said. "Is that enough of a usage figure to assume that everybody wants to pay for it? Well, I don't know."
The survey questions will gather data on whether students think the Ruckus is useful, and whether any legal music-downloading program should be provided by the university.
The results, along with other student feedback, will be discussed at a meeting including Weber, Vice President of Campus Life Gail Hanson, Director of e-Operations Carl Whitman and others, Weber said.
She said she's not sure if the group will make a final decision on the issue or would make a recommendation to another part of the administration. A decision could be made in the next couple of weeks.
The survey is tentatively scheduled to be conducted Thursday through a service called Zoomerang, which links students to the survey through university e-mail.
Will Mount, who became president of the Residence Hall Association Saturday, worked with former RHA President Scott Goldstein, former Student Confederation President Polson Kanneth and newly inaugurated SC President Kyle Taylor to help create survey questions.
Mount said he will support whatever opinion students express in the survey.
"I've heard a lot of students like this program, but I've also heard that a lot of students don't like this program" because they feel the music selection is not wide enough and Ruckus cannot be used on Macs.
"There seems to be some more, not a lot more, but some more negative feedback than positive," he said. "From just reading Daily Jolt comments it seems like the students really don't support Ruckus, but I have to see what [else] is said."
The Ruckus trial that began this semester was funded by a grant from an anonymous donor, which dictated that the University use Audible Magic, a program loaded onto AU's server to block illegal file transfers, The Eagle previously reported. The grant also paid for a legal music-downloading program but did not specify Ruckus.
Weber said the decision on whether to keep Audible Magic was separate from the Ruckus decision.
