Print Wisely Program

Release date: December 13, 2005 |

Beginning in the Spring 2006 semester, Goucher College will implement a “Print Wisely” program.  The purpose of this program is to discourage wasteful printing, conserve environmental resources, and control printing costs to avoid passing these rising costs to students.  Decisions on the aspects of this program were developed in collaboration with students.

1. For the Spring 2006 semester, students will each have a quota of 600 pages for the semester.  600 pages for a semester is equal to approximately 43 pages per week for 14 weeks.   The decision for this 600 page quota was developed by reviewing the Spring 2005 Goucher Student Network Printing statistics, the practices of Goucher’s peer institutions, and the practices of the U.S. News Top 100 Liberal Arts Institutions.
2. When a student logs into a public or computer lab workstation, the student’s current balance will be displayed.
3. Each time a student wants to print a document, a confirmation dialog box will appear before the job is printed to the network printer.  The student has a choice to either print or cancel the printing of the document. 
4. When a student’s balance goes below 101 pages, a low balance notification message will be e-mailed to the student.  This is a one-time e-mail.  No repeat messages are sent.
5. Most student network printers are set up to print on both sides of a piece of paper.  Each side of paper that is printed will count as 1 page.  If a student prints on both sides of a page, that will count as 2 pages.
6. If a student prints on a color network printer, each color page will reduce the student’s balance by 2 pages.
7. If a student depletes his or her quota of 600 pages, the student will be able to purchase an additional 100 pages for $5.00.
8. Students will be able to purchase additional pages in increments of 100 pages by visiting the Help Desk during its normal business hours (8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday). Acceptable methods of payment at this time are: cash, check, and money order.
9. If a student does not use his or her quota of 600 pages, the balance will not be forwarded to the next semester. Students will start with a new 600 pages at the beginning of the next semester.
10. If a student purchases additional pages but does not use all of the purchased pages during the Fall semester, the balance of these purchased pages will be carried forward to the Spring semester.
11. If a student purchases additional pages but does not use all of the purchased pages during the Spring semester, the balance of these purchased pages will not be carried forward to the Fall semester.
12. A student will be able to transfer pages from his or her account to another student's account.

Statistics from other institutions:

The aspects of this program were developed based on student questions, suggestions, and ideas, and the decisions on features of the program were made in collaboration with students: