BC to limit student printing to 500 pages

Environmental issues have been a concern of college students both at Boston College and across the country. With the fall launch of a printing allotment program imminent, however, students will feel a little more pressure to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

In an effort to eliminate the waste of paper and the rising environmental and financial pressures that come with it, BC will adopt a printing allotment policy for all public printing as of September this year.

Each student will be awarded 500 free pages of printing on public printers per semester. with the allotment resetting every semester. Should students use all 500 sheets, which amount to a 20-pound ream of paper, they will be charged three cents per additional page used.

These additional expenses will be charged to student Eagle One cards or a "print card" that can be purchased at the BC Bookstore.

The hope is that with the new program, students will think twice before printing something that in the long run will waste unnecessary amounts of paper as well as toner and electricity.

Speaking on whether the typical student prints more than 500 pages in a semester, University Spokesperson Jack Dunn said: "Our sense is very few. But the policy as a whole helps to codify our commitment to eliminating waste and making the campus more environmentally friendly."

Over the past decade, paper waste has increased drastically. "The amount of printing has grown tremendously in the last few years. The main reason has been the dependence on Web-based material for courses, sort of a shift in the way classroom materials are distributed," said Mary Corcoran, executive director of support services in BC's Information Technology department.

With broader enviromental issues in mind, the concern for paper waste on the BC campus is a legitimate one.

"At a time when the University is planning for its future through its campus master plan, we are being required by local state and federal governments to find ways of achieving sustainability.

At the same time, we're looking at any way to cut wasteful spending. And so, with these environmental and financial concerns guiding us, we decided that we would implement this program beginning in September," said Dunn.

The Campus Technology Resource Center (CTRC), the main source for public printing on campus, as well as other key locations such as O'Neill library, have already been outfitted to accommodate the new system.

Attached to each printer is a device that will allow students to pay for printing through their Eagle ID accounts. Currently, students swipe their Eagle cards in order to activate BC campus printers.

"We've had the swipes in place for quite some time. We tested traffic at the printers, and we tested how people would approach printing. The swipes have worked. The actual mechanics of what happened has been in the CTRC for over a year," said Corcoran.

The new system will be simple to navigate and will not require any additional effort from students wishing to print more than the allotted pages, as swiping an Eagle ID card is already required to print from a public station.

"Printing will work the same way it works now. You go up to the device, and when you arrive, that's when you swipe your card. You'll be able to see your page balance in Agora, and when you run against your limit, that's when you'll be charged," said Corcoran.

In addition, the remote printing system, which allows students to print to BC printers directly from their dorm rooms, will not be affected.

"If you're in your dorm room and you want to send something to the print cue, when you show up wherever you're printing, you simply release the job with your card," said Corcoran.

Students should not face issues with paying for misprinted pages or paper jams. "If any student has an issue," said Corcoran, "we will work with the student at the location, in the lab. If the paper bunches or the printer jams, we'll be able to fix that and take care of the situation."

BC is one of the last among its peers to implement such a policy. "The University began to consider [printing allotment] this year in light of the number of universities nation-wide that have embraced the policy," said Dunn.

Corcoran agreed, saying, "Almost everybody uses a similar policy. Boston College is one of the last to take a look at doing this."

"Our sense is that students who are often suggesting ways to be more sensitive to environmental concerns will embrace this program as they have at other universities. That's our hope," said Dunn.