Author: Faryn Borella
A new printer pilot program will be implemented in the Academic Commons on Feb. 22, requiring students to swipe their I.D. card or enter their Occidental log-in information in order to print their document, according to Associate Vice President for Information Technology Services (ITS) James Uhrich.
“There’s not going to be any charging for printing. There’s no limit on what you can print, how you can print, how much you can print. It’s simply that you will be required to release that print job with a card swipe or with a login prior to it coming out of the printer,” Uhrich said.
The purpose of this mechanism is to prevent jobs from being printed and never picked up according to Uhrich. Jobs will only print if a person, directly at the printing device, releases the print job.
In 2011, Occidental’s public printers and the Copy Center printed at least 8,592,784 clicks, a click being the impression made on one side of a piece of paper. However, this number is only a low estimate.
“That is a lower boundary. There is data we know we’re not collecting from that, so we know the number is definitely higher,” Senior Systems Administrator of ITS Steven Bornn-Gilman said.
The pilot project will be used as a means to decrease the college’s paper consumption and costs. Other colleges who implemented similar programs were able to decrease their paper consumption by approximately 15-20 percent, according to Uhrich.
The success of the pilot project in the Academic Commons will determine the timeline of future changes as the process moves forward.
“We have tentatively said that we hope to start initiating the activities in the residence halls about two weeks after,” Uhrich said. The specific date will be determined after taking into account the feedback of students, faculty and staff.
“Really the goal is to have all of the public printers done by the end of the semester,” Bornn-Gilman said. At which point, the program will then be implemented in the offices.
Although there is no current plan to charge for printing, ITS hopes to continue moving forward in its efforts to conserve paper and needs the input of students, faculty and staff to determine what the appropriate next step will be.
“The idea is to start a conversation with the campus about what we are doing,” Uhrich said. “I’m going to try to solicit and get the opinion from as many people as I can and be able to present the solution that the college thinks that they want.”
ITS has discussed the possibility of implementing a quota system in the future, but nothing will be decided without the input of students, faculty and staff.
“If we’re going to start talking seriously about what it would mean to have a quota, we need as much input as possible about what it would mean to do that,” Uhrich said.
One possible approach to a quota system would provide a cap on how much a student could print, and for each additional page there would be a corresponding additional cost.
Other changes ITS has discussed include reduction in the number of devices, a more suitable placement of devices, and continuing to default printers to duplex.
Many students already recognize the need for change within our printing system.
“I can see why someone would try to address the overprinting issue because there is a lot of wasted paper, and its seems like sometimes you go up to the printer, and there are multiple copies of something, and that is not necessary, and it wastes a lot of resources,” biology major Elaine Westcott (senior) said.
Students also have many suggestions as to how to reduce the college’s paper consumption.
“There’s more electronic copies available of items, which I think is great, and some students utilize that, but I think in general moving more toward electronic is better to save more paper,” biology major Beverly Miras (senior) said.
If students have questions, comments or concerns regarding the new printer pilot program, e-mail James Uhrich at uhrich@oxy.edu.
tivities in the residence halls about two weeks after,” Uhrich said. The specific date will be determined after taking into account the feedback of students, faculty and staff.
“Really the goal is to have all of the public printers done by the end of the semester,” Bornn-Gilman said. At which point, the program will then be implemented in the offices.
Although there is no current plan to charge for printing, ITS hopes to continue moving forward in its efforts to conserve paper and needs the input of students, faculty and staff to determine what the appropriate next step will be.
“The idea is to start a conversation with the campus about what we are doing,” Uhrich said. “I’m going to try to solicit and get the opinion from as many people as I can and be able to present the solution that the college thinks that they want.”
ITS has discussed the possibility of implementing a quota system in the future, but nothing will be decided without the input of students, faculty and staff.
“If we’re going to start talking seriously about what it would mean to have a quota, we need as much input as possible about what it would mean to do that,” Uhrich said.
One possible approach to a quota system would provide a cap on how much a student could print, and for each additional page there would be a corresponding additional cost.
Other changes ITS has discussed include a reduction in the number of devices, a more suitable placement of devices, and a continuation of defaulting printers to duplex.
Many students already recognize the need for change within the printing system.
“I can see why someone w
ould try to address the overprinting issue because there is a lot of wasted paper, and its seems like sometimes you go up to the printer, and there are multiple copies of something, and that is not necessary, and it wastes a lot of resources,” biology major Elaine Westcott (senior) said.
Students also have many suggestions as to how to reduce the college’s paper consumption.
“There’s more electronic copies available of items, which I think is great, and some students utilize that, but I think in general moving more toward electronic is better to save more paper,” biology major Beverly Miras (senior) said.
Students with questions, comments or concerns regarding the new printer pilot program can e-mail James Uhrich at uhrich@oxy.edu.
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