Student Government launches petitioning website

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Derrick Hunt

Nathan Castle, Ashley Carrington, Tyler Pierce and Peter Mikitsh launched a new petitioning service that aims to bridge the gap between the university’s students and administrators.

Rochester Institute of Technology’s Student Government launched a new petitioning service today that aims to bridge the gap between the university’s students and administrators.

PawPrints, which was modeled after the Obama administration’s “We the People” section of the White House website, will allow RIT students, faculty and staff to submit and sign petitions requesting changes to any of the university’s services.

“If a petition gets 50 signatures or more from the RIT community, then Student Government will take that petition and get an answer from the relevant administrators,” said Ashley Carrington, president of Student Government.

The web service was a cornerstone of Carrington’s campaign, and getting the service into the hands of RIT students as quickly as possible has been one of her top priorities. Carrington is anxious for students to make their voices heard.

“Beyond everything else, we want to get students answers,” said Carrington.

PawPrints requires users to have an active RIT computer account. After logging in to the website, users can post petitions or sign petitions posted by others. The website was also designed to integrate with social media, including Reddit, Facebook and Twitter.

To protect against abuse, user’s activities on PawPrints will be linked with their real names.

“You can’t post anonymously on the site,” said Peter Mikitsh, a fifth-year software engineering student and the designer of the PawPrints website. “We decided that was the best way to go forward in order to keep the service accountable and professional.”

Student Government believes that the service will revolutionize the way that students interact with RIT administration.

“We talked to RIT administrators to ask for their backing,” said Tyler Pierce, vice president of Student Government. “Every person that we have talked to has given us their support—Dr. Destler, parking services, Information and Technology Services and so on—they’re on board with it and they love the transparency.”

Students are hopeful that PawPrints can help make positive changes to the RIT experience.

“It’s a great idea,” said Kelly Dunn, a fourth-year biomedical engineering student. “It allows people to have more of a voice in what goes on around campus. Now we can get answers from the administration as to why something is or is not possible.”

Dunn added that he planned on using the service and that he would like to see a 24-hour dining service added to RIT’s campus.

Ready to make your voice heard? Please visit the PawPrints website and start posting.