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The Dartmouth
October 31, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Public printers now in place in River Cluster

The Office of Residential Life installed a public printer station in McLane residence hall study lounge Tuesday for students who live in the River Cluster.

ORL conceived the idea for this project about a year ago, and began construction before Christmas in order to give students who live in the River Cluster easier access to printers, Director of Residential Operations Woody Eckels said.

Computing Services has agreed to supply the printer, the toner, the paper and the maintenance, while ORL built the print window in the McLane study lounge and staffs it with students.

Computing Services bought the new printer for the River Cluster with the idea that it would "cut back on the usage of the other public printers," therefore being "a good investment," Eckels said.

The printer cluster is open from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m. from Monday to Thursday and 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. on Sundays. Eckels said ORL plans to expand these hours during reading period and exam time.

This project took a year to complete because, in addition to "building the rooms and contacting everyone to make sure they thought it was a great idea," ORL had many other projects to complete as well, Eckels said.

The Student Assembly also agreed to purchase and install computers for student use alongside the new printer.

The Office of Residential Life, Computing Services and the Assembly are also planning to install new printers and computers in Brace Commons in the East Wheelock Cluster and in a room in the Choates Cluster.

Eckels said ORL is currently renovating the rooms in Brace Commons, but due to some ventilation problems and the need for a locked room, it will not be ready until the beginning of Spring term, Eckels said.

Similar ventilation problems and construction needs are stalling the Choates printer project. ORL will need to build new walls and doors as well as provide ethernet connections to the proposed location of the public printer station in the basement of Little residence hall.

Eckels said he hopes to have a printer station installed in Little by the middle of Spring term.

Each new printer station costs about $10,000 due to the costs of ventilation, equipment and maintenance.

The money for the construction of the cluster came from students' room rent money, while the money necessary to staff it comes from the ORL's programming money, Eckels said.

ORL has hired two students to staff the printer cluster during its operating hours, and will continue to hire students as needed, Eckels said.

One of the students, Lucas Bianchi '99, said about 20 people per night have been using the printer so far. "It's definitely a good idea. It makes it a lot easier on the people in the River," Bianchi said.