Cartoon by Maegan Moore

At the beginning of the school year, many students were surprised and dismayed to find that printers around campus no longer allowed unlimited printing. Instead, they were restricted to $12.50 a semester in printing taken from their technology fees. This equals being able to print 250 black and white pages. Students are not charged for printing done in class.
According to John Newton, Director of information of Technology, VSU came up with that figure from the 2008 spring semester monitoring of the printers. The data showed that the average student printed 160 copies a semester.
According to Newton, VSU created this new system because of the abuse of the printing privilege from many students and even random people  coming in off the streets to access VSU printers. Ridiculous amounts of paper, toner, and ink were being wasted not on student’s work, but on other frivolous things having nothing to do with any assignment. Stacks of unclaimed papers were seen around every printer in Odum Library, and waste containers were filled to the brim.
VSU did not create this system to make money, but to regulate printing without someone having to constantly monitor the printers.
The new system allowed the biology department to start printing again. It had stopped providing paper because of the amount of waste.
Since the beginning of this semester, the print volume has gone down by 45% and Odum Library has reported a great reduction in stacks of wasteed paper lying around. People not associated with VSU from the community cannot come in and use the printers any more, which means student fees won’t be paying for them to print.
There is no excuse for the wastefulness shown in previous years. With everyone trying to go green, students and staff need to hop on board when it comes to printing and do their part to save paper. It’s not about the money; it’s about the amount of waste. Yes, it is inconvenient, but sometimes you have to do inconvenient things to make a change for the better.
Students can be more responsible when it comes to printing. Be more careful about sending wrong print jobs and be sure you really need a hard copy of something before you print. Teachers can also help by thinking about the assignments they give their students. Realize that each student only has 250 pages, and they can’t all be used in one class. Don’t give them unreasonably long assignments to print out.
Think about the environment, think about the waste and don’t just complain because it’s an inconvenience.

This editorial was written by Ashley George (ajgeorge@valdosta.edu) and it expresses the opinion of the entire editorial staff.