Summer is a time of change for campus, and this one will be no exception. As the school years come to a close, students have come to terms with the fact that they will return to a slightly different campus each year. This year, the university has decided to remove all of the printers from all seven residence halls on campus.
After sending out a student, staff, and faculty survey last spring, a focus group committee was convened including participants from higher administration, faculty, staff, and students to discuss the type of technologies needed on campus and ultimately decide the fate of the printers. The focus group included individuals from academic departments, IT, the library, university advancement, university communications, Residence Hall Association, Student Senate, business services, and admissions.
“We ultimately realized that student utilization was different from faculty and staff,” said Debbi DeWitt, university director of budget. During these discussions, the utilization became one of the most important points, ultimately discovering through data that the residence hall printers were underutilized.
“The combined volume of prints in the residence halls for one year was lower than the [combined] prints of the library or the 24 hour lab,” said DeWitt. DeWitt also said that the Papercut printing program helped the university check and see every click, and also how much waste was present.
However, DeWitt and the Integrated Planning and Budget committee decided not to completely eliminate all of the printers. In addition to the seven that will be removed, there will be two additional printers added to campus.
“There was a demand for more color,” said DeWitt. “We will place one color device in the 24 hour lab in Hollenbeck. Another color device will be in the lower level of the student center.”
In addition to these changes, Papercut has been cut as well in favor of a “print and release” program made by Equitrax software. This program functions but uploading a document you wish to print into a cloud. Then in a specific period of time (anywhere between 2-24 hours) a student can go to any printer on campus, swipe their I.D. and get their documents. Prints that aren’t received in the specified period of time will be eliminated. Dewitt stated that this was to help with the mapping issues students have encountered with their personal computers, because anyone using Witt-Student or Witt-FacNStaff can access the printers. Don’t worry if you forget your I.D., the printers will have a keypad to enter your number.
This change comes at the end of a five-year contract with RECO. Last October, the university entertained six different vendor proposals for the university printing contract. This time, Modern Office Methods won the contract. The new printers will be here and installed this summer, and the new system will be up and running by August.
