Marie Mosca

Opinion Editor

When transferring to Millersville University last year I was surprised to find out that printing on campus was not free for students. At my community college, printing for class was free to any student with an ID handy. You could print out black and white pages, make copies, and also print any sized colored print that you wanted for free. At Millersville, we are given a print allowance for black and white double-sided prints only. The print allowance has been decreasing per semester since I arrived and will eventually disappear altogether.
When I first transferred, I received a print allowance of $125 or 500 printed pages. Now my allowance for prints has decreased to a measly $35 for 350 printed pages. By the time I graduate and new students are coming in, there may be no print allowances at all. I find myself hesitating to use my print allowance to print out homework and have since resorted to using my printer at home. Unfortunately, cartridges for said printer run about $100 per pack, which I have needed to replace more frequently per semester now that I have insufficient printing funds at school. I simply cannot afford it anymore. I am a full time student with no job to supplement these types of expenses.
At my community college, printing for class was worked into the tuition as a lab fee. You paid the lab fee for the class and were allowed to print as much as you wanted as long as it was for class. Even in color and at large sizes for my various art classes. If I want to print a project for class now, it costs me anywhere from $2-$50. I cannot afford to be paying that much every time I need to hand in a project. I could actually get my things printed cheaper at an Office Max or Staples. This is absolutely unacceptable for what I am paying in tuition per semester. I understand that the campus is trying to “go green” and help out the environment, but just because they lower our printing allowance does not mean teachers are going to cut back on the amount of coursework they expect to be printed out and handed in. They are only forcing students to go elsewhere or needlessly waste their money on the same services they should already be provided.
I have a few friends that are English majors that go through their print allowance in the first few weeks of school because of how many typed papers they have to hand in to their teachers. It is also a huge pain to get printing vouchers for anything in color as you can only pay by check or marauder gold, they do not accept cash at all or any sort of debit or credit card. If the school is going to limit our printing, teachers have to start accepting digital files for projects. It is the only way I foresee this can be worked out unless the campus decides to fix the printing system.

Additional information regarding on campus printing can be found here:
https://wiki.millersville.edu/display/ittac…+in+Campus+Labs