During my past year at the University I lived without a car at 2112 -- a.k.a. the end of -- Jefferson Park Avenue, which, as all upperclassmen know and first years will soon find out, is possibly the worst idea ever. Combine this with involvement in a million activities and a roommate who made being home about as much fun as dental surgery without Novocaine and you have a situation where spending all day on Grounds was not an option. It was a necessity. The libraries, where I could do work, write papers and print them out, were my only saving graces. With our huge body of students, I'm sure there are many this year who can relate.
The reasons stated by the administration for destroying this convenience by removing all the printers from libraries around Grounds with plans to replace them with one -- that's right, one -- pay-printer are: To prevent waste and to help accommodate (cue ominous music) The Budget Crisis. With all due respect, I'm sorry, but I just have to laugh. One printer? Anyone who has ever been in Alderman library during peak hours knows that about 75 computers and roughly 15 printers are not enough to accommodate students, so how one printer -- obviously hooked up to a minimal amount of computers -- is going to do the job is lost on me.
As far as the idea of waste goes, it is a fair criticism to say that a great deal of the things printed out at the library are needless, and it is reasonable to suggest a policy that would cut down on such waste, especially during a time when the purse strings of the University are tied tight. However, to take away printers from such a crucial location as the library is outrageous, and to make students pay for their printing is both unfair and unnecessary.
In addition to the "pay-for-print" strategy ITC and the libraries have proposed, they also have implemented a system that only will allow printing as authorized through an account system, which counts the sides of paper that a student prints out per semester, and cuts them off after 500. This system will be in effect in all ITC labs -- which are currently still free -- until next year when they can be converted to the pay-for-print system as well.
It is true that money is a huge issue at the University these days. However, what it seems very easy for the administration to forget is that money is also a big issue for many University students. The cost of books is already nothing short of exorbitant. At the risk of sounding economically ignorant, why it is permissible for a textbook that is made of nothing more than paper and ink to be sold to a student for $160 and then later redeemed for $20 is a mystery to me, and somewhat of an atrocity. In addition to this, we now have class packets, also sold often for seemingly ridiculous sums, but necessary to success in any class for which they are required. And now the administration wants to add toolkit to the list of extra expenses.
Quite frankly, if this pay-for-print policy is going to go into effect, then toolkit has to go out of it. At up to 10 cents a page, where exactly is a student who can't afford a printer going to get the money to shell out $12 every time one of their professors wants to put up a long article on the Web? And while many of us may, should we need them, have the resources to print at home, it is no pleasure to be constantly running out to the bookstore to replace overpriced printing supplies, nor is it any fun paying for them. Furthermore, I would love for President John T. Casteen III to explain to me exactly how it is that the $28,000 my parents pay to this school every year is not enough to buy a few reams of paper and some toner for the printers in Alderman library.
A modified version of the print-account plan would perhaps be the most appropriate approach. If the new accounts run to all computers, there is no reason that printers can't stay in their most convenient locations: the libraries. No one wants waste, and few with the exception of overly ambitious history majors would argue that they really need much more than 500 sheets of printing a semester. Instead of demanding pay-for-print, implementing a system of printing accounts would prevent waste while not making unreasonable financial demands on the undergraduate community. It is understood that the University is in a state of financial crisis right now, but on this particular issue which has more serious implications for the students than the administration seems to realize, it is important that we try to meet one another half way.
(Laura Parcells is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. She can be reached at lparcells@cavalierdaily.com.)
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