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Excessive printouts may cost students
By Kate Johnson
jokathry@mscd.edu

A Metro committee comprised of students and faculty, in conjunction with the Internet Technology lab, is in the process of constructing a policy meant to help eliminate paper waste in the Metro computer labs.

Pending the committee’s decision, students may soon be limited to how many printouts they’re allowed to make each semester.

Vice president of Internet Technology George Middlemist said this move is not to profit from students. He said 80 percent of students print fewer than 200 pages of material a semester—an amount he feels is perfectly reasonable.

His concern lies with what he refers to as “the outliers” in the statistics. According to him, one student last year printed more than 20,000 pages within a three-month period.

But many students feel that instances of paper abuse are rare, and that Metro should not punish students who in fact need larger amounts of print jobs for academic reasons.

“Who’s to say what’s wasteful,” said Metro Student Trustee Brian Glotzbach. “If a student has a legitimate academic reason to print 800 pages in a semester, I don’t see that as waste. I see that as this student has an academic load that required him to print 800 pages, and if they’re legitimate academic print jobs, then it’s not waste.”

Glotzbach noted that students are already paying $80 a semester for lab use.

He isn’t the only one opposed to access fees he said may limit some students’ ability to attend Metro.

“Eighty dollars per student would be plenty of money for them to let us have as many printouts as we want, so I think additional charges would be pretty stupid,” said Metro freshman Rich Wilhelm, 19.

Glotzbach said that numbers speak for themselves. According to statistics he and his colleagues have gathered, a student could print out 500 pages in the lab for a retail price of $9.95. He also said one ink cartridge from Hewlett-Packard is good for 30,000 pages of print, and a ream of paper (500 sheets) runs for $4.95.

Middlemist acknowledged the relatively low cost of printing, but reiterated that money is not the issue. He said his objective is to make students more aware of the amount of print jobs they perform. Middlemist pointed out that many other schools, including UCD, already have paper usage policies in place, and that he is confident the Metro students and faculty appointed to the committee will take the needs of all students into consideration.

“Our goal is actually not to make a dime,” Middlemist said. “We don’t want to make anything.”

He said while students do pay an $80 per-semester fee, much of that money goes to other things in the lab, including the purchase of computers, software and the current networks.

Metro sophomore Daniel Fowler agrees some printing reforms are in order.

“What we pay for IT services goes into so much stuff that maybe they should do a separate fee forrinting so we know exactly how much we’re paying for that,” said Fowler, 20.

He said if Metro is going to charge extra for a certain amount of print jobs, he’d rather pay a fee at the beginning of the semester than get stuck with a bill later on.

Student Government Assembly President Jack Wylie is also concerned that a sensible plan be put in place. He said that if fees are assessed, they should encompass only the price of paper and ink. He said students should be charged at cost, and the proposal should bar any revenue from reaching IT.

The committee will continue to hear concerns from both sides of the debate now through the end of July, at which time they are set to make their recommendation.