Students and faculty members who print documents at the Kiewit Computation Center's public print cluster will no longer be able to fetch their collated papers immediately after they print. Instead, Kiewit employees will only sort and file printouts into the alphabetical bins once every half hour.
During mid-terms, finals and other busy times, employees will sort the printers using the previous, continuous system.
Director of Technical Services Punch Taylor said the change, which took effect March 30, enables those who sort the papers to spend more time on their other responsibilities, which include record keeping, back-ups and inventories in the Kiewit machine room.
There will also no longer be a service bell at the pick-up window because, Taylor said, "the bell invites interruptions."
Students will also no longer be allowed to print multiple copies of a single item at Kiewit.
"Its always been the rule, but we're now giving the coordinators permission to enforce it," Taylor said.
The first copy of multiple printouts will be distributed to students, but additional copies will be recycled and used in the draft printers. Taylor said not distributing the additional copies is a way of discouraging the behavior.
"We had discussed not giving out any of the copies, but realized that that would be wasteful on our part," Taylor said. "Students were being wasteful in their printing, and we were recycling reams of paper which were never even picked up."
He said the new policies will continue indefinitely but will be subject to periodic reviews.
"The ultimate decision, if the abuse and wastage ... continue, could be to withdraw the service, or it could become a fee service, so we're trying to find a middle ground," Taylor said.
Many students disagree with the new policy change and think it will make their work more difficult.
"I think it will make it extremely inconvenient for the student to effectively work if you have a paper due that day or in the next few minutes," Gregory Cappell '98 said. "Decreasing the ability of students to get their work done doesn't seem to be in the College's best interest."
Eve Lazovitz '99 said she thinks "it will be kind of annoying. Before, you could print something and hand it in a few minutes later."
Laura Fanning '01 said she agrees with the policy on multiple copies. "The fact that we get good quality printing is better than what a lot of others schools offer, so students should be responsible to get their own photocopies."
