The Residence Halls Association has made a resolution to reserve the best movies for dorm residents - just in time for the new year.

RHA will now obtain movies shown on the University Housing Channel from Swank Motion Pictures, the nation’s leading distributor of licensed movies. Channel 12 shows recently released movies in all residence halls.

“This decision was made because it was felt that good movies are in the best interest of the students and Swank has a bigger market for good movies,” said Jim McEvoy, RHA internal vice president.

RHA general assembly made the decision at its meeting Nov. 29. A three-year contract was signed Nov. 30. The new service will begin in January.

RHA has dealt with Swank before, but switched to Criterion this semester, which offered a lower price - but fewer movies.

And many students were unhappy about the changes.

AuBree Taylor, a Lyman Briggs freshman, said she’s heard many student gripes about Channel 12 this semester.

“I know a lot of other people were complaining about the movies, that they weren’t any good, they’re too old or they repeat them too much,” she said. “But people are always going to complain.”

Student concerns have been an important part in the change, RHA Movies Director Jerry Roll said.

“A lot of people felt that the price that we’re going to pay for the larger library is not economical,” he said. “But I’ve gotten a lot of e-mails asking why Channel 12 isn’t the way it was last year and why aren’t we getting four new movies each week.”

Roll said Swank has higher costs because they have a higher percentage of the market than Criterion.

“It’s just a wider expanse of movies that were released, and many of them did really well in the theaters,” he said.

Under the new contract, Swank will provide 25 more films per semester. To ease costs, the company has offered a payment program that allows RHA to pay for the service in increasing amounts each year.

With the appropriate measures taken, McEvoy said he’s confident RHA can fund Swank’s contract. Discussions will continue, he said, but officials have considered raising the RHA tax or placing funds in an interest-bearing account to raise money.

“A goal right now is to get the general assembly to figure out how they are going to pay for it,” Roll said. “I don’t want them to be unprepared and end up thinking where’s all the money?”

If the general assembly agrees, a student referendum may be made to increase the RHA tax - $18 for all dorm residents - by about $2 or more.

And although RHA will be taking on more financial responsibility, McEvoy said there won’t be any cuts from other RHA program budgets, such as StateWalk or RHA Recycling. The movie program also includes Campus Center movies and the residence hall movie rental services.

“Since we are so commonly correlated with the movies, it is important to provide the service to the fullest,” McEvoy said.

To make suggestions regarding Channel 12 movies, e-mail rhamovie@msu.edu.