As students begin to run low on their 100-page print quota, the Boston University Student Union has recommended an increase to 250 pages per semester to the BU administration, officials said.
Anant Shukla and John Balsivik, who are heading the Union’s Printing Taskforce, delivered the recommendation to Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore Oct. 20 after a month of meeting with BU officials on what students need for their print quota.
The recommendation comes after a proposal for the increase at the Oct. 13 Union meeting attended by President Robert Brown.
Elmore said the administration is considering the proposal.
‘We have been meeting with some students from the Student Union, just going through some information that the university used in making the decision,’ Elmore said.
Shukla said Union Printing Task Force members met with Elmore, Information Services and Technology Vice President Tracy Schroeder and Associate Dean for Students Wayne Snyder to present data. Each represented a different BU interest and perspective: students, administration, information services and faculty.
‘We met over the course of almost a month to put into context these recommendations,’ he said.
Union first approached the administration following the changes early this year, Shukla said, and was instructed to make recommendations for any changes.
He said Union’s ultimate goal is to have a logical policy that benefits students and the environment.
‘The goal for us is to have a printing policy that meets peoples’ needs and is sustainable at the same time,’ Shukla said.
Shukla said he doubts the policy will ever return to 500 pages per semester.
‘Data shows it was pretty wasteful,’ he said.
The recommendations also request a student presence on future IS&T committees making changes that affect students, which Shukla said the administration has promised.
‘Once [Schroeder] makes that committee’ . . . we will have two people on that committee to make sure that student interests are taken into account,’ Shukla said.
Shukla said printing changes will ultimately follow the administration’s timeline, which they have not specified.
Students said they have almost fully depleted their print quotas and will soon incur the per page charge for printing.
‘I have like five pages left,’ College of Arts and Sciences junior Brittany Lovascio said. ‘I have a printer, but it’s really expensive for ink and it just takes a long time.’
Lovascio said the Union’s proposed recommendations would help students, particularly because she still needs to print as much as before.
‘Any little thing helps,’ she said. ‘I hope they change it soon. I don’t think students should have to pay for something they need academically.
‘I feel like they’re using the green excuse as a way to be cheap,’ she said.
Lovascio said the closing of the lab at 111 Cummington St. has been particularly difficult.
‘I would stay in Cummington all night. This year, Mugar [Library] is open until two [a.m.] and that’s not late enough,’ she said. ‘It’s just a hassle. Public schools have 24-hour libraries.’
CAS freshman Margaret Yon said her print quota ran out a week or two ago.
‘It’s not so great,’ she said. ‘I have a lot of printouts for my writing class so I’ve been using my convenience points.’
She said students need even more than the proposed 250 pages.
‘It would help, but I still don’t think it’s enough,’ she said. ‘I’m actually looking into buying a printer now.’
Yon said her writing professor requires assignments to be printed out.
‘He doesn’t really seem concerned as to how we get stuff printed, he just wants stuff printed,’ she said.
Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences senior Neha Trivedi said she worked in ResNet labs last year, and she thinks Union’s proposal will help students.
‘It would help the situation right now,’ she said. ‘I don’t think we’d be able to jump straight back to what we had last year.’
College of Engineering junior Alessandra Forcucci said though she has a higher print quota through ENG, she questions the BU’s spending decisions.
‘ ‘It does kind of make one angry because we have [Student Village II] and those new signs,’ she said. ‘And then there’s no print quota.’
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