Students who take advantage of the free printing services in the McNeil Building and David Rittenhouse Laboratories will be disappointed beginning on April 18.
According to John Marcotte, the Director of Social Science Computing, the McNeil Building's Undergraduate Data Analysis Laboratory and DRL's Multi-Media and Educational Technology Services will resume charging for printing next Tuesday.
The two locations suspended printing charges in the spring of 2003 while the administration evaluated how to best implement printing services that did not require cash.
According to Marcotte, both locations will charge eight cents per page. The labs have opted to use the University's Uniprint system that is currently installed in Van Pelt library and other computer labs across campus.
The Uniprint system requires students to use Penn Cash for black-and-white laser prints.
College junior Meg Panzer isn't too happy about the switch.
"I used to use [free printing in McNeil] all the time. ... My printer's broken. Now I have no way to print, unless I use PennCash" which she does not use often, Panzer said.
However, not many Penn students were aware that the two locations offered free printing. Many students said that they either own printers, borrow friends' printers or use the Uniprint system on campus.
Other Ivy League schools policies and prices vary when it comes to printing.
Yale University utilizes a system similar to Uniprint at Penn, but charges students only seven cents per black-and-white page.
Columbia and Cornell universities have different printing systems altogether.
At those schools, students using computers in their dorm rooms or connected to the campus wireless network can send print documents to a computer lab of their choice. Once at a lab, students can then select their document to print.
At Cornell, students deposit money into printing accounts through either bursar accounts, credit cards or cash. Some courses also provide printing quotas for the semester. The cost of printing at Cornell ranges from three to 40 cents per page depending on the printer.
Students at Columbia receive weekly printing allowances of 100 sheets. The funds come out of the school's student life fee, similar to the student activities fee that is included in Penn's tuition. Columbia students can also purchase printing dollars online in $1 increments, and printing costs 10 cents per page.
Felix Tan, a customer service representative at Columbia University's Copy Center, said that students are generally satisfied with Columbia's printing services, and that the 100 pages per week printing allowance more than satisfies the needs of most students.
Marcotte feels that students are also satisfied with Penn's Uniprint system.
"PennCash provides a very convenient and secure way to process small transactions" like printing, Marcotte said.
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