Fellow Students,

The Student Government Association is committed to encouraging the responsible use of student fees, ensuring that university services are provided in a way that meets the academic needs of all students, and reducing the environmental impact of our university.  In accordance with these commitments, I would like to announce the implementation of printing quotas in the four Open Access Computer Labs beginning tomorrow, September 1st.

Printing in these labs, located in Cheek Hall, Strong Hall, Glass Hall, and the Meyer Library, will now be initially limited to 500 sheets per academic year. Additional prints may be requested and can be granted immediately, free of charge, if you have utilized your printing quota for academic purposes. If you have exhausted your quota you may request additional printing from a member of the full-time lab support staff, available during normal lab operating hours.

This program was first put in place at the beginning of this semester, but the concerns and confusion among students indicated the need for campus-wide communication about the details and reasons for implementing it.  In light of this, the program will be re-launched on September 1st with all student print quotas reset to 500 sheets.

Unlimited printing has come to be abused on campus with 13% of users accounting for over 51% of the printing in 2008.  Some individual users even printed up to 25,533 pages in 2008, while most students printed less than 500 pages.  Not only did the 7.24 million pages of printing last year have an environmental impact, it put an enormous strain on student fees and university budgets.  This situation is both unsustainable and detrimental to the budget supporting student computer services, and last year the Student Government Association determined print quotas would be the best possible solution (see http://sga.missouristate.edu/download.asp?file=GBSp09-67.doc).

To help with this transition, Computer Services has put together some tutorials that provide tips for how to print effectively and conservatively, which can be found at http://helpdesk.missouristate.edu/papercut/ .

A good start is following the acceptable use policies, which require printing to be academic related.  One way to stretch your quota is to utilize double-sided printing. This way, you can print 1,000 pages on 500 sheets.  Remember this 500 page quota only applies to printing in the four open access computer labs on campus.

We appreciate the many comments you have emailed or called us with and encourage everyone to continue to voice their opinions on the blog at https://blogs.missouristate.edu/sga/.

Christopher W. Polley

Student Body President

Missouri State University