The Inter-Residence Hall Association deliberated over two Internet bills that would counter a policy limiting the amount of outbound traffic from the ISU network.

During the four-hour meeting Thursday night, parliament members heard from Dorothy Lewis, interim director of Academic Information Technologies, and members of the gallery about the policy that Provost Rollin Richmond proposed.

The provost’s policy proposes a limit on output of 200 megabytes per day, but the bill stated that 500 megabytes would prove just as effective and would allow more freedom to ISU network users.

“There’s an alarming increase in outbound traffic generated from some computers in the dorms,” said Lewis, who spoke on behalf of Richmond. “One computer had accessed 79 gigabytes in one day in the dorms.”

Director of Special Events Pat Blair co-authored one IRHA bill with Union Drive Association At-Large David Boike and Towers Residence Association At-Large Matt Heerema. Blair said 95 percent of residence hall students with a computer generate 13 megabytes of output from the network in a day, in comparison with some students who regularly output more than a gigabyte per day, which equals 1,000 megabytes.

Some students in the gallery said the bill is inconvenient because under this policy they would have to learn how to limit their daily Internet use.

“Students have no way right now to find out how much data they send out each day,” said Russ Graves, freshman in computer engineering.

Heerema said the policy would not affect the majority of ISU students and should be passed by parliament that night so they could forward their proposal back to the Provost.

“It’s not limiting 95 percent of our constituents,” Heerema said. “It doesn’t pertain to them. The other five percent is very vocal. I propose that they postpone their fears if they have legitimate, legal and educated reasons.”

He also said he was disappointed the parliament was ill-prepared with questions and information since he, Boike and Blair had e-mailed their proposal in advance.

“I’ve e-mailed it out to you several times comprised of a week’s worth of research,” Heerema said. “All objections I’ve seen are unfounded and misconstrued.”

Other parliament members disagreed with Heerema because the policy would affect all residence hall students and should be introduced to each association.

“I know they are a minority, [but] there are many groups that we give consideration to,” said Andy Walling, Richardson Court Association president. “I need more time; then I can give you [my constituents’] feelings.”

Towers Residence Association President Jonathon Weaver introduced another bill asking the parliament to reject the provost’s policy.

“My intent is to address concerns [that I have received from students],” Weaver said. “I have lost count of the e-mails I have received from people who are against this.”

Boike said it is important to address the policy regardless of which bill is passed in IRHA.

“I do think it is important that we take a stance [on this issue]. Otherwise AIT will implement the policy no matter what,” he said.