By Anne Steele, News Correspondent

Student reaction to a media station set up for group use in Snell Library two weeks ago has been overwhelmingly positive; unfortunately for those who have yet to try the new product, it will be gone by the end of this week.

The product, called the Mediascape, consists of a four-stool set-up, a high-top table and two attached flat screen monitors on the first floor for students working in groups to plug their laptops into and use for display. Office Environments of New England, a company that provides audio-visual equipment and interior design solutions for businesses, loaned the equipment for Northeastern to sample Nov. 3.

Stephen Newman, Office Environments’ account representative for Northeastern, said Northeastern is the first school to test the units, which can serve both academic and corporate group-work settings.

“We wanted to see how students work together, what needs they had that weren’t being met, and how we could bring it together in one integrated piece of technology,” he said. “You walk in Snell now, you see two or three or more students huddled around a laptop. This lets you have one or two screens to switch around, or have a paper up on one screen and pull up a relevant article on another screen to suit your needs.”

A group of four business majors using the equipment to analyze numbers for a project this week said they were impressed with the setup. Junior business major Haig Sarkissian said his group appreciated how easy it was to use.

“We haven’t used them to their full potential, but I see how they could be really helpful,” he said. “You plug it in and it works.”

Middler business major Rinan Farhat, another member of the group, agreed.

“I think more stations would be good because many people have asked us when we would be finished,” he said.

Associate Dean of User Services for Snell Library Leslie Milner said the university regularly samples new products, and student feedback from this one was full of superlatives. Unfortunately, Milner said, the library does not have money budgeted for furniture purchases this fiscal year, which runs to the end of June.

The Student Government Association (SGA) recently created a Facebook group, “Having a Say in How Northeastern Tuition and Fees Are Spent,” where one student posted that he would like to see money invested in the Mediascape.

“I got a chance to test the only one out and if you’ve seen it … it’s amazing, one of the smarter things our school has actually decided to spend money on,” wrote middler business major Josh Plave, presumably under the impression the station was there to stay.

Many other students on the site lobbied against some of the more cosmetic technological spending by the university, like the televisions recently installed in the Curry Student Center and the flats screens that have been in the International Village dining hall since it was built.

“So 34 people already think the dining hall flat screens are ridiculous … and the numbers keep climbing! Lets do something about this waste,” wrote junior communications studies major Carolina Prieto, who had previously posted, “More power outlets in the library. Less random flat screens in the dining hall.”

Milner said while library administration tries to stay attuned to student requests, it also has to work carefully with the budget it is given.

“I don’t know how budgeting for the student government works, but we have our money designated from the Provost’s office, and we have to manage that budget,” Milner said. “By and large the response was very positive … but, you know, it’s expensive.”

Newman said the equipment is offered in a variety of sizes and arrangements, which range in price from $8,000 to $30,000 per unit. He said the only universities that have purchased them so far were the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Middler biology major Jason Lipof, who was testing out the set-up with a group after Sarkissian’s, said, “I think [Northeastern] should totally invest in these.”

– News Staff Rob Tokanel contributed to this report.