Printer Error: this plan must shut down immediately

The recent decision to begin charging students $.10 per page to print documents in the Tisch and Ginn Libraries and Eaton computer lab is absolutely ridiculous. An effort to encourage responsibility in students to conserve ink and paper and to prevent an unnecessary waste in resources is valid, but the proposed solution to the problem _ to nickel and dime students at the risk of impeding education_ certainly is not.

Problems with the new pricing policy number more than one might expect. Lines at Eaton during peak hours are already long and congested. Adding an extra payment step to the printing process, even if it is through some sort of automated prepaid card, will inevitably result in even more congestion, and possibly more confusion given the added technical functions the system would have to accommodate. In addition, given the track record of other types of automated card machines that have had a history of being out of order at the University, refilling these cards could be inconvenient, cumbersome, and frustrating for students who already function on tight schedules.

The biggest issue, however, is the principle involved in this new policy. When students are charged for every page of a journal article they need for a research assignment, money rather than learning is pushed to the forefront of student concern. Furthermore, students who face financial challenges would be impacted most severely, and these students should not be charged such an astronomical amount simply for doing their work. When research for classes becomes more a monetary concern than anything else, the quality of assignments students turn in would most likely suffer, as most students, for the sake of saving money, will seek out shorter articles with which to conduct research and use fewer than the necessary resources to conduct that research properly.

There are a number of alternative solutions that could achieve the same goal of ecological preservation without making students who pay upwards of $35,000 a year feel completely cheated of their money. It is highly unlikely that the University simply cannot afford the printing resources financially _ the issue is to conserve and to avoid waste. A starting step could be to implement the setup Eaton currently has to manage printing in Tisch.

When students have to go to a desk and ask for documents to be printed, they are less likely to print so irresponsibly and limitlessly. Or, student workers in the computer lab could be asked to become more vigilant about letting students print large amounts of pages. Yet another approach would be to place scrap paper bins where paper could be put to be used again for students printing drafts.

Just as students who used to use Ginn to print moved to Tisch when the former started charging, students will most likely continue to seek out alternative methods to print for free even when both libraries and the computer lab impose a charge. They will simply resort to exploiting their connections to other resources _ academic department offices where they or their friends work, student organizations, and the like _ to print their documents.

When the purpose of an educational institution is to educate and to push students to their limits, limiting the resources available to them _ and their ability to use those resources _ is both ironic and unfortunate. Tufts should seriously reconsider the printing charge before it starts to adversely affect students.