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PrintQ exhausted for 248 students; About 1,622 exceed more than half of limit

By Ryan Taljonick on October 13, 2010 6:00 am in Technology / 21 comments

 

Some students are already reaching the printing limit established through CMU’s PrintQ system, according to data from the Office of Information Technology.

The data shows 248 students have used the entirety of their printing allotment as of Oct. 1, just six weeks into the semester.

Jeff McDowell, Information Technology help desk manager, said more students than expected are approaching the limit.

“It’s going to be hard to say what will happen until we finish a semester,” he said. “I think we’ll need to do some tweaking when we see the numbers.”

The data also indicates about 1,622 students have used more than half of their printing allocation, but have not yet reached it.

Joseph McLaughlan, a graduate student studying clinical psychology, said the PrintQ system is doing more harm than good.

“I know people that have purchased their own printer since this has come out,” he said. “I’m making changes to what my daily habits were in order to cope with the printing limit that’s there.”

McLaughlan said graduate students rely heavily on printing journal articles for class work, many of which can be 20 pages or more.

“We could read it off the computer,” he said, “but when you’re doing that your eyes get tired and sore for awhile and it’s not good for them.”

It is also difficult to highlight important concepts or make margin notes without printing an article, he said.

PrintQ purpose

The system went live on June 28 this year. It allocates $10 worth of computer lab prints to undergraduate students and $15 to graduate students.

Printing a black-and-white copy deducts four cents from a student’s allocation while color prints deduct 32 cents.

The system was designed to accommodate the printing needs of about 60 to 70 percent of students, McDowell said.

Those with higher printing needs must purchase additional printing allotments in two-dollar increments.

“We’re not trying to prevent people from printing for their class,” McDowell said. “We don’t want to be the printing police, we don’t want to decide what’s valid (for printing) and what’s not — we want to leave that up to the students to decide. It’s designed to try and eliminate waste.”

McDowell said nearly 1.9 million pieces of paper have been saved during the first six weeks of the semester compared to the first six weeks of the 2009 fall semester, though PrintQ is not solely responsible for the difference.

Things such as departmental changes and a push for a go-green attitude have also played a large role in the reduction of paper consumption, he said.

McDowell said if the paper-saving trends of the first six weeks of the semester continues, about 52 trees worth of paper will be saved.

“It’s a substantial impact, but there’s also an impact for students too,” Mcdowell said. “They have a legitimate need for printing. Ultimately, the students pay for everything that happens here.”

Program monitoring

McDowell said the Office of Information Technology receives useful feedback about many of its programs, including PrintQ, from the Student Technology Advisory Committee, which consists of a 20-student panel.

Portland junior Annalise Kransz is a member of that committee.

Kransz said the committee was hesitant when presented with the PrintQ system.

“We’ve never had a print quota before, but we saw numbers of wasteful printing that has been going on on campus and they wanted to quell that,” she said. “It is still a work in progress, I think that it needs to be kept because it is limiting the wasteful printing, but it needs to be changed to reflect more of the students’ needs.”

 

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  • Chipfan

    what about the classes where the assignments each week are about 25 pages “ent 300″ or the graphic design classes where the prints have to be in color such as jrn 302. I agree the students do waste alot of paper but there needs to be a system in place to know what classes you are in and what the amount of printing you will need. I pay way to much money for those classes to have to pay extra for printing.

  • Derek

    I wish the article would have included more numbers. Specifically, a ballpark estimate of the number of undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled for classes this fall. Or something more accurate, if available. If you take a fairly conservative estimate of 20,000 total undergraduate and graduate students registered, the cited number of 248 students exceeding their PrintQ allocation already is only a little over 1%. And the 1,622 exceeding more than half of their allocation makes up just over 8%.

    My impression of the system and allocation is that it is adequate for the vast majority of students, and we're only hearing from the vocal minority. As the article stated, the system is designed to accommodate the needs of about 60-70% of the student population.

  • Jessica

    I'm one of the 248. I'm taking several upper-level history courses, and all the articles I had to print out for my research killed my quota. I've already had to buy extra $2 allotments. I'm going to print all these articles whether or not there's a quota in place, but I have to say, it's really irritating to a college kid who is hurting for money in the first place and used to be able to print for free.

  • Alumni McGee

    I think $10 dollars is definitely enough for students. Students have been wastefully printing for as long as I have been a student, and honestly I think that if you have to print things off to turn in to faculty so much that it makes you go well over your 250 B&W pages, then students should be discussing with faculty taking assignments via electronic means. That is why CMU spends money on blackboard, Wimba, our email system, UDrives, etc.

  • Jessica

    Why can't the system be adjusted based on your class standing? More than likely, a freshman is going to print a lot less than a senior, who will print less than a graduate student, etc. $7 for freshmen, $10 for sophomores, $13 for juniors, $15 for seniors, $20 for graduate students perhaps? No matter what technology comes out, there are going to be things that will never be electronic, and if it is, not everybody wants to spend an hour reading it from a bright computer screen.

  • Jessica

    Why can't the system be adjusted based on your class standing? More than likely, a freshman is going to print a lot less than a senior, who will print less than a graduate student, etc. $7 for freshmen, $10 for sophomores, $13 for juniors, $15 for seniors, $20 for graduate students perhaps? No matter what technology comes out, there are going to be things that will never be electronic, and if it is, not everybody wants to spend an hour reading it from a bright computer screen.

  • alecia

    well i'm one of the 248. lets talk about biology lectures, labs, orgo chem lab manual…

  • alecia

    well i'm one of the 248. lets talk about biology lectures, labs, orgo chem lab manual…

  • Julie

    When I got my admission letter to CMU it did not state “Congratulations on your admission to CMU, where you can use all the ink and paper you want for free!” People need to stop complaining about getting 250 free pages of printing and unlimited additional pages for the low price of $.04 a page. It costs much more to buy a printer, ink, and paper than it does to pay $.04 a page at CMU.

  • Julie

    When I got my admission letter to CMU it did not state “Congratulations on your admission to CMU, where you can use all the ink and paper you want for free!” People need to stop complaining about getting 250 free pages of printing and unlimited additional pages for the low price of $.04 a page. It costs much more to buy a printer, ink, and paper than it does to pay $.04 a page at CMU.

  • student

    Must be nice to live in a perfect world

  • student

    That is 250 pages IF you are only using black and white.

  • Alicia

    I am a graphic design student. In a class, I need to print out test copies (to make sure the color is correct on paper, to make sure things align well, and so on). The $10 is definitely not enough. I think maybe the school should consider changing the amount for students signed as a BFA with graphic design concentration.

    Also, look at printing quotas for other schools. I heard that another university, students had 500 pages. That is more reasonable.

    I do think that the quota is a good thing. I noticed myself not printing as much since I CAN (although I don't prefer it) read and refer to information on the computer/internet. But some things are required to print out. I have weekly papers in one class, that are required as hard copies; I had a 70 page course packet I was required to print in another class–which although I printed double sided, I was still charge $0.04 per side; I have slide lists I am required to bring to class each day. The $10 allotment just is not enough, even when I am not in any graphic design classes this semester.

  • Derek

    There has to be some responsibility on the individual department to provide students in their program with adequate resources and supplies to complete specialized coursework. What you're describing is definitely the exception, rather than the rule. Have you spoken with anyone in that department about resources available to students in your major? About things like labs, printers, etc. “reserved” for students completing that coursework?

    PrintQ is not going to meet the needs of every individual in every situation. That's just not possible. But, hopefully, it can meet the needs of *most* individuals in *most* situations.

  • Crysta

    I have to agree on this note. I exhausted half of my printing quota in the first week because I had to bring a mandatory physics lab manual. Bio lectures have notes that have to be printed off for every lecture, especially the upper level courses. Labs require a lot of printing too, and I print everything double sided, but still get charged for two pages, which is pretty annoying if you ask me.

  • Is Glen Beck a terrorist?

    “The system was designed to accommodate the printing needs of about 60 to 70 percent of students, McDowell said.”
    In other words, it was designed to fail to meet the printing needs of about 30 to 40 percent of students.

  • Orgo Attempt

    You won't pass any of those with writing skills like that :P

  • Rianna

    Freshman definitely print the most. Not only that, they are the ones who print full black pages of power points.

  • Mark

    It's hard for a state who is hurting for money to offer free printing :P

  • Printer

    After the wasted printing I saw in my years at CMU, this printing quota has been long overdo. Every time I would go print something, there would be stacks of hundreds of pages of powerpoint slides that were printed and never picked up because the student didn't wait long enough to pick it up. Other times, for example, the printer would have a 2 hour delay on printing, so everyone would print but would never get their stuff, so they'd go print somewhere else.

    Repeat that for every lab, for every day, over and over and over and over.

    “Sarah we don't need to print it.”

    “It's ok, it's free!”

  • Cody

    Thanks people who print off entire books in labs, this is why we can't have nice things.

    HOW ABOUT educating students on appropriate printing? (Probably wouldn't work, most students are technologically inept anyways)