Westminster College ~ Student Printing Policy

Effective: 01/2005 Revised 1/2006

Summary Westminster College has adopted a new student printing policy. This action was taken in response to the increases in student printing and the increasing costs associated with that printing. Since the implementation of the Westminster network in 1994, students at Westminster have enjoyed “free” printing for both personal and academic work. The costs of this printing has increased dramatically in the last few years; we estimate that almost 40% of all student printing goes directly to recycling, never leaving the room where it was printed. It seems clear that some form of accountability is necessary to reduce waste and its associated costs. Westminster is not alone with this problem. The cover story on the October 4, 2002 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education listed the top ten ways for colleges to cut IT costs. Number one was, "Create limits or rules for students' printouts." All the private colleges I contacted last year have dealt with this issue in a variety of different ways. As a result, the following policy was recommended to the Cabinet and approved. Furthermore, this policy was reviewed and endorsed by the Westminster College Green Council. Policy Westminster College recognizes that students need to print paper documents in the course of doing academic work. The College also recognizes its responsibility to promote responsible use of the network printers on campus. Accordingly, all full-time students will be allocated $50.00 for “free” print images per semester. Part-time students will be given an allocation of $25.00 for “free” print images per semester. Each non-color page printed will be charged against this balance at a rate of $.10 per page. If you print pages on a duplex printer, your account will be charged $.08 for the first page and $.08 for the second page. Each color page will be charged against this balance at a rate of $.20 per page. Once the printing allocation has been reached, the students will need to add money to their printing account before they will be allowed to print. Students can do this by going to the business office in Westminster Hall.  When a student logs into a Windows-based lab computer, there is an icon in the system try (lower right corner) that can be opened to view the student printing balance. Students can also view their current printing balance at any time by following these steps: (Please note that a printing account is created the first time that a user prints a document). 1. Open a browser and go to the Westminster website at www.westminster-mo.edu . 2. Click on the WC Users section of the website. 3. Choose the Network Printing Account Status Link a. Type username@westminster-mo.edu in the Username box. b. Type your current network password in the Password box. c. Click on OK Guidelines for Conservative Printing 1. In the application that you are printing from, make sure you have the correct printer selected. Get in a habit of choosing File from the menu and scrolling to PRINT so that you can view and change the printer. 2. In the application that you are printing from, is there an option for printing multiple pages on one page? For example: If you are printing a powerpoint presentation, you can print multiple slides per page by choosing FILE and Print and changing the PRINT WHAT option to Handout. In this option you can print 2, 4 or 6 slides per page. 3. When there is a duplex printer available, use it. This may not save toner but will save a few trees. 4. Is the resource viewable online?