Tommies finding it tough to cut printing costs in digital world
This piece in TommieMedia makes me wonder whether efforts to read everything online is simply transferring the responsibilities and costs of printing onto students -- and not making a major dent in the dead-tree pile.
Tommie students are printing out increasing numbers of pages, which is worrying some administrators there.
University officials may have thought they tackled the problem after they implemented a printing quota in 2006 that cut printing in half.
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(Sam Levy, vice president of Information Resources and Technology) said one of the main reasons students are having to print more is because faculty members are putting class readings on Blackboard that were once purchased in the bookstore or handed out in class. It is then the students’ responsibility to print out those materials, which cuts into their printing quota.
Studies still show that students prefer reading print on paper, and I admit I was part of that crowd when I was in grad school two years ago.
Is this happening on your campus? Or am I missing an element in the St. Thomas case?