Fee-based printing the wave of the future

A fee-based printing system may be tested in Boise State computer labs over spring break and throughout the semester. While students won’t be charged per page yet, that may change next fall.

Stephen Henderson, Manager of the Boise State Office of Information Technologies computer labs, says right now, labs and students bear the costs of excessive printing, and he’d like to see that reworked.

According to Henderson, the Multi Purpose lab recycle bins fill weekly with up to 40,000 sheets of printed work left behind by students and others. Money for this paper is derived from student fees, which may be augmented to account for the waste. This could hit students in the pocketbook.

In the last two years, a committee tentatively called the “Fee Based Printing Work Group” has looked to implement a flexible fee system that will put an end to paper waste and excess cost to those not abusing the system. “We want zero impact to the average student,” Henderson says.

The FBPWG has researched different fee structures at campuses across the country, comparing prices and software design, and trying to find what fits the students at BSU. Henderson says the group has also had student input from ASBSU President David Morriss and former ASBSU Sen. Ramiro Castro.

“Reigning in the cost and putting the money where it should be,” will keep lab fees down, Henderson says. Students should have as much free printing as necessary to complete an average semester, he says. Henderson says some universities charge for every page printed, while others may charge nothing at all. Here at BSU, he says the group will try to stay on the higher side of paper allocation as compared to peer universities, thus affecting only those printing excessively.

Abusive printing, says Henderson, leads to long lines and disgruntled students. Henderson suggests that if students are limited to a few hundred or so pages per semester, students will think twice before printing out a 750 legal document and forcing others to wait up to twenty minutes. “You guys all pay a fee, and here you are unable to use a computer you paid for the use of,” he says of the cramped printing lines.

Henderson says the new system will give each student an amount of “printing credit” to be tracked on their student identification cards. The cost of each printing job would be debited from the account with any printing beyond the given amount charged to the student. Henderson says the printing prices will vary based on what the equipment needs of the specific jobs may be, such as color ink, legal paper, and the like.

Students will need to swipe their student ID at a “print release station,” where print work will be managed. But, Henderson says the program is not a tracking system, and students will have privacy over what they are printing.

Henderson says that most likely the credit will not roll over from one semester to the next. He also says the issue is striking a balance with the equipment costs, and students will not be able to cash in their credit for other campus services. “Is the system going to literally return dollars to the pockets of students? No. But, it will get students to stop and think.”

Mary Grace Lucas
News Writer

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