Time to reboot

When the Administration announced the plan to charge for library and Eaton printouts, the Daily opposed the idea from every angle. Charging $0.10 per page would cause students to sacrifice the pursuit of academics in order to save money and would create massive inefficiency and frustration for already stressed students. And at a school that charges $35,000 a year for tuition and room and board alone, it is basically impossible to defend any additional nickel and diming.

Luckily, the libraries' plan to begin charging for printouts has yet to be implemented, thereby leaving students with an opportunity to prove that the plan is unnecessary. The vast majority of students agree that the pay-for-print plan is outrageous and would be detrimental to both students' general quality of life and academic experiences. But how many students have made a serious effort to combat the problem that has created the apparent need for the pay-for-print system?

After all, nobody would deny that a tremendous amount of paper is wasted every day in the library and at Eaton. Where are all the environmentally conscious students to negotiate with the libraries about potential ways to combat this wasteful practice? Certainly between ECO and LCS, we have plenty of students capable of serving the community by implementing environment-friendly policies for printer use. Instead of just complaining about the inevitability of the pay-for-print plan, students leaders need be proactive in eliminating the need to spend so much on printing supplies. What about organizing a way of reusing scrap paper? Or perhaps a more visible student-led initiative to inform computer-users about wasting paper would eliminate talk of the pay-for-print system.

Tisch director Jo-Ann Michalak has said that the library is still waiting to implement the system and that the start date hinges on "what comes in the semester." What clearer message to students could there be about the future of this plan, at least for this year? It may be easier to whine about the definite possibility of the pay-for-print system, but there may still be time to be more proactive. If students want to save their own money, they can start by trying to save some of the library's.