Newly implemented system makes for complicated printing

Beginning this fall term as part of a new printing fee system, students have to pay for anything they want to print in the library or in computer labs on campus.

Being fully aware of the financial issues that this school has been going through over the past year, I think that implementing concepts like the printing fee, as well as the parking permit system, are a step in the right direction to help balance the budget.

But I have been frustrated, and seen other students react similarly, with how this new system is being applied.

No doubt many of you have become well acquainted with the machines used in the library and the computer lab that students now use to pay for and print their work. And you probably already know what kind of problems I’m talking about.

I could care less about the nickel amounts of money I pay at a time when I print. In fact, even if they doubled the costs, I have no doubt I would still use the printing system.

What bugs me is not the fact that we have to pay for a previously free service, but that the new system, which you do pay for, is twice as inefficient and tedious.

The procedure seems simple enough.

Save your file to document onto a flash drive, plug it into one of the machines, swipe your card then choose your settings and print.

But the technology has proven to be prone to long loading times and at times freezes up completely.

For example, one time I was forced to wait nearly half an hour to simply print off three pages of homework after the student in front of me had to wait more than 10 minutes for a document preview to appear, before being forced to start the process all over again.

It doesn’t help that many of the assistants and staff don’t know how to fix the problem, which is no surprise, given that the software itself seems to be faulty.

Also, this is not just a one-time occurrence. I have experienced this on a near daily basis.

To be honest, I don’t know why this system was chosen in the first place. It would have made far more sense to simply charge a $5 to $10 printing fee at the beginning of the term.

Given the mere dimes and nickels I’ve paid for printing thus far, this proposal would increase their profits 10 or 20 fold or more and buying the machines would be unnecessary, making printing glitch and line free again.

While 30 minutes of waiting certainly doesn’t kill a man, when I have deadlines to meet, waiting at the mercy of a heartless machine can definitely make it frustrating.

Being the cold chunks of metal they are, begging the machine doesn’t help either. Trust me, I’ve tried.

But maybe punching the damn things will and I just might opt for that the next time.