At the last ASUC senate meeting of the semester Wednesday night, senators passed a bill allocating $5,000 to provide students with iClicker rentals.

The money will be funneled from rollover funds from the ASUC’s 2013-14 year budget, and is supported by SR-34, a resolution that outlines financial support for the ASUC iClicker Initiative. The initiative aims to provide an opportunity for students to rent iClickers from the ASUC at a fraction of the current cost to either rent or buy comparable devices.

Karthik Prasad, Student Action senator and primary sponsor of the resolution, said he expects the initiative to have 100 iClickers on hand to rent to students. Students will be required to put down a $40 deposit when they check out the device, but the deposit will be returned to them if they return the iClickers at the end of the semester. Additionally, students can expect an additional $5 rental fee.

“It is my belief that this project will be one of the most tangible services the ASUC will provide to students, long after I’ve left this university,” Prasad said.

According to Prasad, his office has been working on the initiative for the past months and has already been approved for a $5,000 fund from the Student Technology Fee Committee, or STFC. The fund would arrive by mid-January, but Prasad’s office hoped to have the service ready by the start of the spring semester. The resolution, therefore, allows for the purchase of necessary hardware before January. The ASUC will then be reimbursed by the STFC’s funds.

The initiative is similar to a program at UCLA, where, according to the Daily Bruin, students have rented out more than 300 iClickers through their student government and the UCLA Office of Instructional Development. Prasad, however, plans to expand UC Berkeley’s program further and hopes to tailor this program toward low-income students.

Prasad said his office should have a website ready to accept iClicker rental reservations a week before the start of the upcoming spring semester.

Jessie Qian covers student government. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @jessieq96.