Pay to print starts now
By Emily Bechen
If you have entered one of the computer labs on campus you have undoubtedly noticed that you are now required to pay for printouts from an allowance stored on your access card.
In the initial trial period of this new implementation, print-outs are one penny each and students have a total of $8 on their access card with which to print. IT hopes that this will cut down on wasted paper and resources.
However, many students and faculty feel that this program was implemented without prior consultation of the student population and that perhaps it is only good in theory.
"Santa Clara leads you to believe that you do not need your own computer or printer, but now we are forced to pay for what we print," junior Allison Barr said.
Junior Kelly Hubbard, a Santa Clara senate representative, complains that the student body was never consulted about the plan and that the Senate had to confront IT when they learned of it. She claims that even some school officials were not informed of the changes.
Santa Clara was spending $50,000 a year on its paper supply and printer upkeep, and with budgets tightening, Dair counters that this figure was getting unrealistic. Dair anticipated the backlash this program has created, but says that IT is operating on a budget like everyone else.
Dair says that IT's intention is not to have students pay for their printing needs, but to provide a quota or an allowance on access cards that should cover school printing expenses for the quarter while cutting down on students' wasted paper.
Dair does not know the exact amount that will be allotted to each student for printing each quarter because the program is still in its fledgling stages and data is still being collected about students' printing habits. He estimates that it will be somewhere between $100 and $500 per quarter.
Dair does know that next quarter each printed page will cost 8 cents, mirroring the cost of the copy machines, and if students use up their allowances they can deposit more money into their flex account.
Hubbard questions whether this will be enough given that many teachers are now assigning lengthy readings available only on E-Res.
Stanford, Berkeley and University of California at Davis are amongst the 250 institutions that now use this program successfully, but it remains to be seen whether or not Santa Clara will be the 251st happy customer.