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Labs to Charge for Printing
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Labs to Charge for Printing
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To encourage responsible printing, reduce paper waste, and control costs, the campus has established a new policy to charge for printing in the campus computer rooms. Information and Educational Technology (IET) will implement a five cents-per-sheet charge for printing in the campus computer rooms. Starting on June 25, this new policy does include a provision that allows the first 200 sheets (400 back-to-back pages) printed every quarter to be free from charges. The charges accrued during the quarter will then be sent to the Cashier's office and included in the quarterly fee statements. Faculty and staff who print in the labs will be subject to the same fees and charged to departmental accounts. Historically, IET has supported unlimited free printing in the campus computer rooms. However, according to a recent report issued by Lab Management (see Lab Management Print Policies), printing in the campus computer rooms has increased dramatically over the past several years. Recent statistics show that printing demand has increased nearly 250 percent in the past five years, from 580,000 sheets printed in winter quarter 1996 to more than 2 million sheets printed in winter quarter 2001. This increase can be attributed to several factors, says Peter Blando, operations manager for IET-Lab Management. "The rate of change can be linked to both an increase in the number of users and the rise of the average number of sheets printed." While the growing number of computer literate students has also played a significant role, the increased use of the World Wide Web for delivery of course materials has also contributed to the increase. "In the past, instructors would provide copies of their class notes or course materials to their students or place a copy at a printing shop where students could purchase them. Now many instructors are placing these materials on the Web, and the students then open the course Web pages in a computer room and print them out," says Blando. This transfer of duplication costs from the students or academic departments to the computer rooms ultimately led the campus to authorize a change in the labs. Through meetings with campus leaders and the Academic Computing Coordinating Council (see AC4 Recommendations on Print Charging), a 200 sheet-per-quarter allowance was negotiated. Computer room users will be notified of the number of sheets they have printed via a pop-up box on their computers each time they print in the computer rooms. Lab Management will also be sending weekly emails to every person who's printer more than 100 sheets during the quarter. A Web page has also been developed where individuals can check their print quotas. Plans are also underway to develop classes for instructors to learn how to create Web pages that will minimize the number of pages students need to print (for some brief tips, see Creating Print-Friendly Web Pages). |
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