STAFF EDIT: Out of paper

Students who may have been expecting big things from the Boston University Student Union’s negotiation with administration to expand page allotment by next semester might be disappointed to learn that come January, they’ll still be limited to 100 free pages. Union and administration settled to reduce the cost of any additional pages printed beyond the 100-page maximum from 12 cents to eight cents per page. But this likely was not the kind of compromise most students were hoping for ‘-‘- and it questions whether Union really put in the effort they promised they would.

Both Union’s and the administration’s commitments to environmental sustainability are laudable, but considering the still massive amount of waste generated at a large-scale institution such as BU, and considering how precious a few extra pages of free printing can be to students, the idea of possibly increasing the allotment to a little more than double than what was given ‘-‘- to the 250 pages for which Union originally solicited ‘-‘- doesn’t seem like that much more of an environmental burden. With the 100 free pages currently offered, some students can afford to budget their printing or deal with the inconvenience of reading from computer screens. Others, however ‘-‘- particularly those with majors that rely heavily on reading ‘-‘- may find that they cannot sacrifice printing and cannot cover the monetary costs required of them. A measure that threatens the academic success of any student should simply not be tolerated ‘- students pay exorbitant tuition for BU to ensure that these types of compromises can be avoided.

The problem at hand is that administration and Union alike have a distorted definition for what qualifies as a luxury. A four-cent reduction in charge per extra page is hardly enough to remove the burden from those students suffering the most. And what are 100 extra pages of free printing for some students who are having a hard time making the grade without spending extra money, when their fellow BU peers are residing in enormous high-rise luxury dormitories? Some things are worth the environmental expense because they might be essential. Other luxuries, those which look great in the BU view book and those which shine during campus tours, such as over-the-top dorms’ and new dining facilities, could easily be disposed of without negatively affecting the core academic values of the university. It is Union’s responsibility, as representatives of the student body, to fight for the right luxuries, and not be swayed by the administration’s rhetoric. Perhaps it will take yet another semester and another Union to conjure real change not only in the printing policy but also in the way the university prioritizes and for whom they prioritize.