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Technology Services has found that the Uniprint system -- installed in computer labs last semester to track the amount that each student is printing out in the labs -- have decreased printing among students by about 30 percent.
Despite rumors that the school is planning on using the system to charge for printing, the devices -- which require that you swipe your Evergreen card to release a print job -- are used merely for tracking purposes. Although the school is debating what to do with the information, there are currently no plans to institute a fee.
"Of course they're going to charge, it's Loyola," junior Alexis Turro said. She said that she recently returned from abroad, and at first thought that she was being charged to print. The balance of a student's Evergreen card shows up on the screen when they release a print job.
According to Tom Podles, computing services director for Technology Services, the information gathered through Uniprint has allowed his department to track which students are doing the most printing and the sizes of their print jobs, rather than just the amount of printing done.
"I could get data before, but I'd never be able to tell who the students were or how many pages they printed," he said.
Podles said that the printing being done before was unevenly distributed among the students. When the system was first installed, six percent of the students did about 30 percent of the printing.
Out of the 2,210 students who used the system on the average month last semester, four students printed over 1,000 pages of paper, and 130 people printed over 300, including a single print job of 350 pages.
"The question is what's fair use, what's legitimate use. That is someone else's decision to make; my job is just to collect the numbers," Podles said.
Since then, the numbers have evened out. In January, there were 1,497 students who used the printers; only 34 printed over 300 pages.
The current highest single use for this semester was a student who printed out 905 pages in January; this same student had previously printed out about 1,100 pages.
The system doesn't allow Technology Services to see what the students are printing, only how much is printed. Information on specific students is not recorded until they swipe their card.
"I'm only interested in what they're printing if there's abuse," Podles said. "Students hear about this and say, 'Big Brother's watching us.' No, we're protecting the innocent."
"I know that somewhere in there it says how many pages I'm printing," said Turro as she used the printer.
Podles said that many students have been printing more because more teachers are putting course information online.
This has led to a decrease in toner and paper use, meaning that the printers in the labs are available more often. It has also served as a form of what Podles calls "pre-recycling" because less paper is wasted in the labs.
"It saves a lot of paper, especially when the printers get jammed," said sophomore Megan McGlynn.
Podles said that previously, paper was so overused that an entire box of wasted paper could be collected in the labs every day.
Turro said that the new system is more inconvenient than anything else and has not decreased her printer use.
"When they start charging me, then I'll stop [printing]," she said.
"Somebody's paying the piper, and ultimately it's the students, whether through increased tuition or other costs," he said.
Podles said that because the computer labs are easily accessible, sometimes it wasn't just students who were printing.
"We offer free printing to students, but also pretty much to the world ... now you need a valid ID card to print," he said.
During the first week of school, printers in the residence halls were out of order. Some of the problems were related to the Uniprint system, but the majority was due to problems within the computers themselves.
They have since been fixed, and Technology Services doesn't expect there to be any more problems.
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