College considers printing charge for fall semester

Ian Richards, sophomore, prints his assignment on Tuesday. He uses the printer in the library about once a week. “It would be awful [to pay for printing],” Richards said. He will start printing at home rather than here at school. Photo by Lily Sisay.

Non-students clogging up library computers
and printing unnecessary documents
could lead to a change in college policy.

College administrators are looking for ways to make the budget more efficient. One measure under consideration is a pay-as-you-go system for printing, said Terry Calaway, college president.

“We are very concerned about the process
the college has used related to copying
in the library. Copying in the library is why it opened, for anyone to copy anything.

We have a significant number of community members who use our library who pay no tuition or fees,” Calaway said. “That is a cost saving measure I think we will probably pursue.”

Calaway believes student tuition should not be used to finance massive print jobs for non-tuition paying community members.

“The dollars we use to buy paper and ink cartridges come from the tuition fees students pay to go to school here,” Calaway
said. “What we have heard is that it is not uncommon for people who are not students to come in and run a lot of copies because we do not charge for it.”

Although tax payers have a right to use the community college’s facilities, the usage has gotten out of control in some cases, Calaway said.

“Someone coming in and printing a hundred pages off the Internet for some research they are doing for their business is not appropriate,” Calaway said.

The college is also looking into ways to soften the blow to students. One possibility
is issuing printing credits with the new student identifications cards debuting this fall, said Mark Daganaar, director, Billington Library.

“Students would be allowed some free printing at first,” Daganaar said.
The wasteful use of college resources has forced the college’s hand on this issue,
Daganaar said.

“The patrons have been a problem,” Daganaar said. “When people don’t understand
the print capability they waste jobs. Everyone is tightening their belts right now.”

Under the current concept, the library would still be accessible by the general public.
“We would probably log the public on, students would log themselves on,” Daganaar
said. “In the years to come there could be other services added [to the new student ID].”

Contact Matt Galloway, news editor, at mgallow2@jccc.edu.