CMU to set limit on lab printing: $10 worth of free pages for students starting in summer

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The days of printing 20-page PowerPoint presentations in Central Michigan University’s computer labs may soon be numbered.

A new student printing service will launch during the Summer II semester and will allocate $10 worth of free pages to students, equal to 250 black-and-white or about 31 color pages per semester.

It equals out to paying four cents for black and white or 32 cents per page for color per page.

Additional print credits can be purchased in $2 increments — 50 black and white pages — at a time.

“We’re not looking to make a profit on this,” said Roger Rehm, vice-president of Information Technology and chief information officer. “We’re looking to make people responsible about what they need to print.”

Rehm said electronic methods of submitting assignments, such as through Blackboard, will be encouraged.

He said the 250-page print limit likely will not be a permanent solution but, instead, the first of many steps into updating the student computing situation around campus.

This could eventually include students being allowed to print from home and pick up documents from on-campus computer labs.

“I think, in a few years, we’ll find far less reliance on those big public labs,” Rehm said.

Rehm said graduate students often need to print out much larger documents or assignments than undergraduates and may need to be given special consideration based on the service’s results.

The 250-page quota was inspired by data from the print labs suggesting about 75 percent of students print out no more than 250 pages per semester.

Saginaw Valley State University uses the same limit, Rehm said.

While the issue may mean big changes for students who rely on the print labs, Clarkston senior Angela Zott approves of the measure.

“I think it’s a good idea, because a lot of people waste paper,” Zott said.