Green or Mean? New Printing Restrictions

Students divided over page limit by Jeffrey TamThe “green” movement has gained ground in recent years as concerns over the environment have hit a fever pitch. Recently, the CCNY administration has tried to play its part in the movement by instituting a new page limit on the once unlimited printing offered to all attending students. Even students worried about the environment have mixed feelings about the policy. “I don’t really know how I feel about it,” says Dawon Han, 22, a CCNY senior. “On one hand I think it’s necessary because some people do abuse the unlimited. On the other hand, sometimes they really do need it.”CCNY’s new “green” printing policy puts a 1,000 page cap on allotted pages per fall/winter and spring/summer session. If students exceed the quota, they must purchase printing credits, at ten cents a page, from the Bursar’s office in the administration building. The school promises to redirect any saved funds to other student beneficial services.Fatjon Kaja, the vice-president of academic affairs for CCNY’s student government, maintains that the decision to institute the policy came after long and arduous deliberation. “A continuous debate between the administration and the undergraduate student government has taken place for years about establishing a printing limit. Whereas the administration insisted on its establishment for financial and environmental reasons, the undergraduate student government has objected to the printing limit on the grounds that it was an imperative tool for many students to successfully educate themselves,” he says. “Recent incidents - where groups of students were printing around 1500 pages per day - brought the debate to a new tipping point, the consequences of which we can see ourselves.”Rising CCNY senior Alex Wallach, 20, supports the new policy. “Students tend to be very wasteful with unlimited printing,” he says. “There are definitely more efficient ways of getting around your printing needs. Some people are in there printing out whole textbooks, which is neither environmentally conscious nor time efficient.” He also believes this move will reduce waiting times for printers in the tech center which he says will be “overall beneficial.”Brian Chen, 19, a rising sophomore, offers a counterpoint. He cites health concerns. “I think the main reason students would prefer unlimited printing is because they get tired of reading from a screen,” says Chen. “Because eyesight deteriorates with age, the strain of having to read from a computer or tablet can sometimes be intolerable for the undergrad population who are close to senior status.”Rising senior, Joshua Luchan, 21, has doubts about the administration’s promises. “The environmental savings are definitely something I can support, but my main issue is that they framed this as a way to save money for other student resources,” he says. “I doubt that we, the students, will ever see any of this money put back into resources that will benefit us.”Only time will tell if the school will follow through on their word. Until then, expect to hear debates about this topic far into the semester. One thing is for sure: we will no longer be seeing paper wastelands in the tech center of the NAC.