Printers will see double

// news / daily - march 7, 2006

http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=19736&repository=0001_article
written by Katherine Cox

If Residential Computing’s new printing policy proves effective, more students will be flipping through double-sided slide print-outs in lecture next quarter. ResComp, a division of Stanford Academic Computing, will implement duplex, or double-sided printing, as the default setting in all residential printers as well as those at Meyer Library and Tresidder Union.

A change in the price of color printing will accompany the duplex policy. Spring quarter, students will face a 10-cent charge per page, same as the grayscale price, instead of the current color printing charge of 50 cents per page.

Surajit A. Bose, ResComp’s Cluster Operations Manager, said the switch to duplex printing was motivated by environmental consciousness. ResComp’s central staff was initially approached by members of Students for a Sustainable Stanford (SSS) with the idea.

Emma Yuen, president of the student group, said they developed the proposal in response to meetings with Stanford Procurement — the University’s buyer and distributor of materials — and the University Architect/Planning Office that occurred in the spring of last year.

“The meetings resulted in an initiative to reduce the paper used in the massive amount of printing on campus,” Yuen said. She and others then spoke with ResComp to generate ideas about how to get students to utilize duplex printing as their primary print format.

After a few conversations with SSS, Bose and other staff members decided the change to a duplex default setting was a good idea.

“We feel that a lot of Stanford students would print double-sided if it were made easier, or if it was an automatic setting, especially because much of what students print are drafts, .pdfs, lecture slides and graphs,” he said.

This aspect of the new policy will be easily executed because last year ResComp installed “duplexers,” the hardware necessary for bulk double-sided printing, in each residential printer. This year, duplex printing became a standard option in Meyer and Tresidder printing kiosks. To designate duplex printing as the default mode, ResComp must now simply change the print software’s settings. Students will still have the option to print single-sided documents; although, as of next quarter, they must specify whether they wish to do so before printing.

Some Green Library printers will not be affected by the change because they are not capable of printing double-sided pages and because they are not managed by ResComp, said Robert Smith, a computing info systems analyst for Stanford University Libraries tech support.

Bose hopes that this simple alteration will have a significant impact on the amount of paper used by students printing in residential computer clusters. ResComp, which is also responsible for stocking clusters with printer paper and toner, will monitor the effects of the policy.

“We will be keeping an eye on how much paper is used over the next few quarters,” Bose said. “If we buy half as much paper, or two-thirds of what we were buying before, then it might allow us to charge less for printing.”

According to Bose, Residential Computing sets prices according to the cost of servicing the printers.

“Our print accounting system is not based on turning a profit. What we charge is for replacement costs: paper, toner and the printers themselves, in addition to the cost of software development,” he said.

Yuen suggested that the duplex print policy is central to a larger campaign currently spearheaded by her group. Stanford Procurement has committed $4,000 to the effort, in which SSS will work with ResComp to publicize the importance of duplex printing to Stanford students. Yuen said she designed the fliers posted in each residential computer cluster that outline the positive ramifications of double-sided printing. She explained that “SSS is still going through ideas” as to how to best advocate the practice and make use of the campaign funds.

The smaller price of color printing that will debut next quarter will be implemented for technical reasons as well. Only 15 of the campus’ 77 residences are equipped with color printers. In most of these clusters, students may currently choose between printing on a black and white printer for the lower rate or printing on a color printer for 50 cents per page.

Bose explained, however, that as ResComp moves toward supplanting both printers in such clusters with a single color printer, charging a flat rate for both types of printing makes more sense.

“The color printer has four ink cartridges, one of which is black ink. The toner for each cartridge costs the same. But since students print in black and white more often, and they’re printing on this color printer, we have to change the black cartridge most frequently,” he said, adding that charging more for color printing is illogical.

A second reason for the low rate stemmed from ResComp’s inability to eliminate a loophole in the printing system that allowed users of residential PCs to print in color for the 10-cent price.

“We couldn’t find a way to solve this technical problem so we figured, what the hell,” Bose joked.

Color printing at Meyer and Tresidder will incorporate this new price as well.

Senior Seth Cairo, the Residential Computing Coordinator at Mars, received the email ResComp sent RCCs requesting they notify their residents about the upcoming changes. Cairo said he had “already counseled residents to use the duplex option,” and that he believed they would heed his advice.

“About half of our residents use the cluster for printing purposes,” Cairo estimated. Although he praised the new color printing rates, Cairo added that Mars did not have a color printer, and speculated that this is the case for most Row houses.