Pay to Print

So the morning rolls around and your printer is out of ink. The paper is due within an hour.

Now some of you may be thinking “No problem I will just print at LB”

WRONG!

Linn-Benton has recently changed its printing policy (you may have noticed the warning on every computer desktop around campus) to “Pay-to-Print”

A lot of you are probably asking yourself “why was I wrong earlier? I can still print at LB, I just have to pay”

Linn-Benton’s new pay to print policy operates on an “electronic money” only policy. You cannot use cash or change you find laying around your car.

Instead you have to pay money with a debit card online, or to the registration. And can you print once you have paid? No. You have to wait hours for the system to update and your funds to be available.

This matters because, there will be no more emergency printing at Linn-Benton for Students who have a printer at home, and no more free printing for the Students who cant afford to print.

I spoke with Ann L. Adams, Director Information Services at Linn-Benton Community College to ask her a few questions about the school’s new policy. Most importantly “Why?”

She was very polite and explained to me that;

“Asking Students to check how many pages they are printing helps them take responsibility for printing costs and waste. In the first week that the system has been used, paper usage has gone down by one third.

"We are also asking faculty to be aware of how much printing they ask Students to do.”

She also pointed to the fact that, “all the colleges around us were asking Students to pay for printing. As a result, some Students were coming to LB to print free which did not seem fair”

we can only speculate as to what school she is referring to but as a former OSU student I think I know what she is talking about.

Linn-Benton Students all can admit to at least knowing someone who has been wasteful when it comes to printing for free but is this really the only way to evoke change?

Yes it is successful at stopping paper waste but what do Students think about it?

I talked with student Paul Macotti, who is business major, at the Benton Learning Center to get his opinion on it.

“Isn’t that was our tuition is for?”

Tuition is expensive, however if does not seem that Linn-Benton is changing its policy because of the price of paper but because of Students level of waste.

I had to ask Ann Adams.

“How much does paper and ink cost in terms of dollars at Linn-Benton per term?”

I found her reply to be somewhat shocking

“For black and white printing, each page costs 3 cents for supplies. For color, the cost is 11 cents. This works out to about $8000 for supplies alone each term.”

$8000 a term is a lot of money to a college student, or any middle class family really, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it’s not a lot of money to a college.

According to the Linn-Benton website Linn-Benton has what it calls “the general fund budget”. For 2007-2008 it was set at $47.3 million.

If you also look at how much Linn-Benton is charging for “pay to print” you will notice that although they only charge for the cost of supplies for color paper they do make money every time we print on black and white paper.

Although student and teachers alike may debate whether pay to print was put into action to stop paper waste, or for Linn-Benton to make more money one thing is clear, it is going to accomplish both. Students can no longer waste paper at the expense of Linn-Benton, whether they can afford it or not.

if you have any questions in regards to pay to print feel free to e-mail or call Linn-Benton staff

At a Glance: What’s important?: Students having to pay to print Who’s affected: Students who print at LBCC Where: Printers all over campus Why: student waste and the cost of paper Questions: contact Ann Adams 5419174357