Unlimited free printing: It may sound like a dream to underclassmen, but to seniors at Tufts, it once was a reality. Before the spring semester of 2003, students could print out and copy an unlimited amount of pages at Tisch Library and the Eaton computer lab, completely free of charge.
All of that changed two years ago when the administration decided that soaring costs and wasted paper necessitated the implementation of the current Pay-for-Print system, under which copies and prints cost ten cents each.
Ex College intern and Tufts alumnus George Rausch (LA '05) approved of the change. "I think it's an excellent idea," Rausch said. According to Rausch, the old system was inefficient and bad for the environment. "There were stacks of wasted paper," he said.
The former free system resulted in waste by professors as well as students, Rausch said. "Professors would say, 'Oh, go to the library, go to Blackboard, and print out this 40-page PDF,'" instead of using course readers and online articles that don't need to be printed out.
"Most people weren't even thinking about conserving before being forced to pay," Rausch said.
But many students still long for free on-campus printing. "I wish I had access to a better printer," said freshman Bridget Reddington, who owns a printer that often malfunctions. "I can't really afford to buy a good printer. [Free printing] would make life easier."
Sophomore Lauren Vigdor is in a similar situation to Reddington's: She also often has problems with her printer. Vigdor also finds required copying for class to be a burden.
"We have to copy our econ workbooks because we can't turn in [our problem sets] in the book," Vigdor said. "That really adds up - it's 20, 30 pages at a time."
Senior John Valentine, Vice President of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate, agreed that printing and copying are too expensive. "It is pretty obvious that ten cents per copy is way too much to be asking students to pay, especially considering that the University is trying to encourage students to write theses," Valentine said.
Valentine's suggestion is to cut down the amount of wasted paper associated with free printing by making copies and prints cost five cents each - a price he said is "much closer to the actual costs associated with printing and paper."
The University's solution to the problem of printer costs is to issue debit cards already programmed with $10 for students to use toward copies or prints (100 pages in all). Some students are unaware of the cards' existence, though.
"I never heard about [the cards]," Reddington said.
And though Rausch was aware of the system of debit cards, he did not know that they were given away for free. "I actually didn't even know about that program," he said.
Additionally, many students print out more than 100 pages in a year. "I have probably printed out 100 pages already this semester," sophomore Doug Foote said. "I'm a political science major, so I have to print out long articles."
Valentine said he agreed that the current copy cards are inadequate. "The University says that the free 100-page copy card is enough, but we would rather just have the price set at five cents to be fair for all students," he said.
Costs associated with personal printers are often high for students. Inkjet cartridges often go between $30 and $60. A block of 500 sheets of printer paper can cost between $6 and $10. But this is still cheaper than printing at the library, where printing out 500 pages would cost a student $50.
Other colleges have found different ways to deal with such costs without placing the burden on students. Dartmouth College uses a system called Greenprint, in which students are given $40 of free printing on their online accounts each term.
At Dartmouth, single-sided pages cost five cents each - and as a result, each student has 800 free pages each term. Students can use the computers in their dorm room to write a paper and then send it electronically to a Greenprint station, several of which are located around the Dartmouth campus.
Dartmouth sophomore Gerard DiPippo, who does not own a printer, said the Greenprint system is a success. "I'd say the vast majority of Dartmouth students use Greenprint and do not have their own printers," he said.
DiPippo also said that the system does not lead to much waste: "I think the system probably saves paper overall," he said. "Since people need to walk to a printer, which is generally in a different building, they are going to be conservative with their printing."
Dartmouth senior Diana Bradford also utilizes the Greenprint system. "I don't have a printer; I use Greenprint all the time," she said.
She also said she thinks Greenprint results in saved paper. "There are recycle boxes all over campus, and there are single-sided paper drop boxes designed to collect paper which can be reused."
Bradford said that before the $40 limit on printing was imposed at Dartmouth in 2003, unnecessary printing ran amuck. "There was a lot of wasted paper during my freshman year," she said. "Now, I don't think there's that much waste."
Vigdor said that a system similar to Greenprint one would be useful at Tufts. "If I could print for free, I'd definitely take advantage of it."
