Michael Ohene-Adjei ’18 has never used GreenPrint. After hearing of friends’ difficulties with the campus-wide printing system, he bought his own printer.
His decision comes as students complain about printing speed, paper jams and margin size. The system has seen a number of complications this term, many of which can be traced to a new version of Google Chrome that was installed on campus desktop computers last week, assistant director of campus information technology support Ellen Young wrote in an email.
The upgrade affected the default paper size on all documents printed from the browser, causing delays with GreenPrint and other printers, Young explained, noting that College information technology staff has worked with students to change paper size settings and has enabled printing of documents set at any size.
“We have also changed the configuration on the GreenPrint printers so that when someone sends a file to print that is a paper size that is not available, the job will print anyway, it’s just the margins on the paper will be off,” she wrote in an email.
Such efforts have had adverse effects, Ella Ryan ’18 said, noting that she has seen many students in the Russell Sage Hyphen struggle to print essays in the correct format.
Josh Alexakos ’17 said one out of every four or five documents he attempts to print through the system fails to materialize.
“I come to the station, swipe my card, press to print it, and there’s not paper in it, there’s a malfunction, a jam, and because of the way the system works, I’ve lost that print job,” Alexakos said. “It’s just really inconvenient, and it costs a lost of time and money.”
Printers see different use rates, and high volume can affect functionality. To address this, GreenPrint vendor Ricoh redistributed printers across campus during the summer and fall interim, switching printers in high-use areas and low-use areas.
The information technology support team is continuing to work with Ricoh to improve printers’ ability to withstand heavy usage and plans to hire students later this term to monitor and resolve basic issues on nights and weekends.
Six of eight students interviewed described recent trouble with GreenPrint, and said they have received little explanation as to why the system malfunctions or for how much longer problems will continue.
Sarah Lee ’17 said she has had her study habits altered by an inability to print
“Sometimes, I just give up and end up reading the papers on my laptop instead, which is sometime also hard, but I just don’t really want to go through the struggle of using GreenPrint,” Lee said.
Other students have begun to seek out alternative methods of printing on campus. Leila Vicinelli ’18 said her personal printer has become communal, with floormates coming to her for their printing needs.
Aniksha Balamurugan ’16 said she prints her documents at the Thayer School of Engineering free of charge.
Security changes have also removed GreenPrint accessibility from the “Dartmouth Library Public” wireless network, Young wrote. Her team is troubleshooting, but since most students do not use that network, they should not be affected by the change, she wrote.
GreenPrint has seen difficulties since its introduction in 2002, when it was heralded as a newer and more efficient printing system. The system was hacked in 2004 and malfunctioned on Macintosh computers in 2008. Jamming issues with a new model of printers installed later that year brought Dell engineers to campus.
Young said the recent Chrome upgrade affected other universities using the same printing system.
