The Samford Crimson

Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: News

"Go Print" sounds like a policy that encourages printing. However, Samford's initiative is actually trying to deter printing. As rumors sparked among students last year that printing would become a paid service at Samford, concerns arose that too many substantial costs were burdening students. Many of these concerns were being voiced by the administration.

Interim Chief Information Officer of Technology Services Dennis Self is a key administrative component in this new Responsible Printing Initiative.

"The intent of the university is to provide printing services for students and authorized persons without additional charge," Self said. "The subject of us having abusive printing has been going on for years. This is not a new issue. It has been a concern for a very long time."

In a campus-wide email sent last week, Self wrote, "Print Management Committee, with broad representation across campus, issued a report in July of 2008 giving recommendations for implementing a print management program."

Self echoed the purpose of the committee but confirmed that no students were on it. However, he did say that Student Government Association President and senior communication studies major Bee Frederick was consulted in December for feedback, but Self did not give further details.

"We talked about why we needed this new system, about how they were researching other institutions and their plans, the time table for this new system, and lastly we talked about what students would think," Frederick said.

Frederick and Self both wondered what students would think. "I told him that students would most likely not be very happy with a new quota system,"  Frederick said. "It is obviously hard going from unlimited printing to a limited amount. The other Student Executive Board officers and I relayed that if they were going to implement the system in the spring for sure, that it would be best to introduce the system and allow students to get used to it before they automatically had a charge associated with going over the quota."

The data produced this semester will be decisive in determining whether or not Samford should charge for printing next semester, and, if so, how much to charge. This semester, each student is given 5000 points. The "charge" this semester is 10 points per page, giving each student 500 pages to print this semester.

When a student reaches the maximum, they will be notified. Then, there is an alternate allocation they must select.

Continued...

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