Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sunybcs!lively
From: lively@sunybcs.uucp (Richard S. Lively)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Future SIGGRAPHS (housing)
Message-ID: <8022@cs.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 19 Jul 89 02:13:50 GMT
Sender: nobody@cs.Buffalo.EDU
Reply-To: lively@sunybcs.UUCP (Richard S. Lively)
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Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science
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One thing I would like to see considered for future conferences is student
housing.  Boston, for example, would appear to have been an ideal opportunity to
accomdodate this request, given the proximity of BU, BC, MIT, Harvard, etc.
Many students that I talked to at Graphics Interface were passing up SIGGRAPH
because either they could not afford to pay for housing out of their own
pocket or grants would not completely cover $100/night hotel bills.

Other large conferences, such as AAAI, have recognized the situation of
students who must face increasing conference costs while seeing little or
no increases in graduate student stipends.  Although I understand the
convenience and exposure available at big cities such as Atlanta, Dallas,
Boston, and Las Vegas, usually it carries along with it a higher cost of
living. 

Although I find the $155 registration fee for students a bit steep, I cannot
argue that at SIGGRAPH you get more than what you pay for.  It is one of
the best run and most entertaining conferences I have seen.  The real
problem is housing.  For example, 3 nights at the Lafayette (my assigned
hotel) is 1/20 of my yearly salary.  At GI, dorm rooms at Univ. Western
Ontario were $15/night.  Although that might be an unfair comparison,
I think that SIGGRAPH might consider attempting to provide some reasonable
alternative for its less financially secure members.

I would be interested in hearing from other students who share this opinion.
If there is substantial agreement, I will forward the information to the
conference committee for consideration.  Maybe some progress can be made
for future conferences.

Rick Lively
SUNY Buffalo