Changes to student printing were made during the winter break to reduce the cost of printing beyond the student-printing budget, reports Andrew Connell, director of User Services. These changes include reducing the price per page (from 10 cents to seven cents for black and white pages and from 20 cents to 14 cents for color pages) and reducing the semester starting balance from $60 to $42 per student. Under the new policy, students are still able to print a total of 600 black and white pages.

The proposed changes were presented at the December faculty meeting and the new policy went into effect last month for the Spring semester. An announcement regarding the changes was made in the Dickinson Today newsletter. Connell said that the policy was changed in response to several faculty concerns regarding the existing policy.

“[The main concerns were] first, whether high need students were too heavily burdened by any printing they may need to do beyond the Free Page Credit,” Connell said. “Second, whether per-page charges to students once they exceeded their Free Page Credit were in line with the cost of printing to the College. Lastly, whether printing needs had changed for students and the 600-page Free Page Credit was still appropriate.”

The All-College Committee Information Technology and Services reviewed data from wireless-printing platform PaperCut for all student printing for previous semesters. The data revealed that the mean student printing usage was 280 pages; thus, the 600-page credit was still needed by the majority of students.

“The committee then performed a full cost analysis of printing on campus and proposed that, given current costs, the per-pages charges should in fact be reduced to the amounts [now in effect],” Connell said.

The committee proposed that students experiencing financial hardship should be able to contact their College Dean for assistance in augmenting their printing budget. Another proposal was made on behalf of students with disabilities.

“Given that some students with qualifying disabilities may require a larger Free Page Credit, the committee [also] proposed that students who feel they may qualify for such an adjustment should contact the Office of Disability Services for further information,” Connell said.

In addition to making printing more affordable, a graphic gauge was added to the Dickinson Gateway to add transparency. The gauge, which is accessible through the Students menu option of the Dickinson Gateway, shows the number for free pages remaining. Links to the new printing policy and to instructions on how to add funds if the 600-page credit runs low or has been exhausted were also added.

“[We] hoped that any printing charges incurred to students who exceed their Free Page Credit are more affordable, that the details regarding the student printing policy are transparent to all,” Connell said. “[We also hope] that students know the printing policy and current Free Page Credit were originally adopted back in 2008 at the request of the student body to further the College’s environmental sustainability efforts.”

Students who have more questions about the policy can email [email protected].