It’s the prelude to most major campus events: Students crawling around on sidewalks, clutching masking tape and photocopied posters.

The popular tradition might soon fade away with a proposed project that would allow student groups to advertise their events digitally on flat-screen televisions in all the dining halls and outdoor, weatherproof kiosks across campus.

The televisions would resemble the three already in Norris University Center, which list each day’s events. The new equipment would be linked back to Norris so it would advertise all the student events at the same time.

“The purpose of the monitors (in Norris) was to provide building event and directory information and to provide a new vehicle for student organizations and campus departments to promote events and programs,” Norris Director Richard Thomas wrote in an e-mail to The Daily. “So far, the system has proven to be popular with both student organizations and campus departments.”

The success at Norris led to the proposed technology upgrade.

“Some on campus have suggested that a broader network of such advertising-oriented monitors across campus would be even more beneficial to student organizations and campus departments,” Thomas said.

Because there is no “formal project at this point,” Thomas could not say how many new monitors there will be. He also could not disclose the cost of the new equipment because of university policy.

But Helen Wood, director of the Center for Student Involvement, suggested the cost is low when looking at it in the long run.

“The problem is that it’ll cost us a lot of money to put in the infrastructure,” Wood said in an Associated Student Government meeting last Wednesday, Jan. 9. “It actually works out pretty inexpensively.”

With the new proposed system, students would upload their advertisements on a Web site.

“It’d be less than what you’d spend for (advertising) an event now,” Wood said.

If student groups use the new technology as Thomas expects, students walking across NU could see fewer flyers on the ground.

There would be “less dependence on posters and flyering (and) more reliance on electronic media and technology-based solutions,” Thomas said. “It seems to make sense to explore options, such as a network of monitors across campus.”

This technology could also be useful in emergencies, ASG President Jon Webber said.

“It can immediately pass announcements,” the Weinberg senior said.

Even though the Norris technology is not directly linked to ASG, Webber said he had been discussing a similar proposal with administrators.

Webber said he hopes the Undergraduate Budget Priority Committee will include the proposal in its yearly recommendation to the Board of Trustees.

For student groups that publicize their events through posters, some say the new technology won’t have the exact same impact.

When Hillel launched its Ask Big Questions project last fall, members of the organization advertised primarily through posters on the ground. The posters – which featured questions like “When do you feel most alive?” and “Would you die for a cause?” – were intended to direct students to the project’s Web site.

This form of advertising is eye-catching because the project was intended to strike curiosity, Hillel President Danielle Gershon said.

“I think that postering is the most effective in doing widespread advertising,” the Weinberg senior said. “It’s great for getting your name out there.”

Though Hillel takes advantage of different forms of publicizing its events, from advertising on the ASG-run NU Link to using e-mail lists, Gershon said postering is “an invaluable resource.”

“I don’t think (the new equipment) is going to get rid of postering because it’s such an easy way to get to people,” she said. “People like that it’s right there.”

Because the tradition is so popular, many students see the new technology as a means to supplement the posters on the ground.

“I personally think people are really attached to flyering,” said Evyn Williams, Arts Alliance publicity director. “A lot of people think that theater would suffer if we get rid of them.”

But the Weinberg senior said sending students out to poster across campus was an ineffective use of the show’s resources.

“It just takes so much energy from the people you work with,” Williams said. “It’s something people hate to do – absolutely hate to do.”

Reach Alice Truong at [email protected].