By LYDIA EARHART

lee003@latech.edu

 

Devon Cannon’s printer at home was working overtime last spring when she took Economics 215.

Dr. Edward O’Boyle, an associate professor of economics and finance, said he was asked this quarter by the university to not allow students to print out his book in the labs.

Cannon, a senior photography major, said she had to print the economics book at her house instead of using the computer labs on campus because she did not want the students to wait on her 150 colored pages to print.

“I heard the [lab] workers were turning away people who needed to print out the book in color,” Cannon said. “It’s annoying to hear the [computer lab] turns away people when [we all]  pay a technology fee.”

Cannon wonders where the technology fee is going.

“The [fee] has been spread out in a lot of places and made a lot of things available to us that wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have this extra funding,” Roy Waters,  the director of the Computing Center, said. “The Internet wiring in the dorms and the library are all high visibility projects.”

Waters said each of these projects has been submitted by a proposal to the technology committee who votes on which of the proposals are appropriate.

O’Boyle said his students are trying alternative solutions such as Office Depot or their own printers.

“[The university] said they cannot afford to print copies of the book,” O’Boyle said. “It’s irritating; presumably the university encourages its faculty to teach material they feel the most comfortable with.”

O’Boyle said he wrote the book because it is a substantial text, and he updates it quarterly, unlike other textbooks.

“Coincidentally, the [computer labs have] not turned away students every quarter,” O’Boyle said. “It tends to happen in the fall when a large number of students are enrolled.”

Waters said enrollment is not a factor in students printing the text books in the computer labs.

“Printing text books in the [computer labs] backs up the printer,” Waters said. “It’s just not appropriate.”

Waters said it is not fair for the other students to wait a long time for their small jobs to be printed.

“Students are paying the technology fee, but it’s not an unlimited free resource up there,” Waters said. “We are just trying to be prudent with the students’ funds.”

Kurtis Johnston, a network specialist, said the computer lab does not print textbooks.

“I have heard that since day one, and it has been a problem,” Johnston said. “People slip in and do it, but we try to stop them.”

Johnston said printing the Economics 215 book, which is required to be printed in color, is a hassle to the computer labs.

“Our color printer is an old bubble jet that does about three pages a minute in color,” Johnston said. “It is not our job to print textbooks.”

Johnston said color printers are expensive.

“There is no such thing as a free lunch,” Johnston said. “In the summer the labs are not as busy, and some students slip through.”

Johnston said the Computing Center throws away 96 gallons of unclaimed paper and the number of pages a student prints should have a limit.