A 300-to-400 pages per quarter printing limit could be hitting students at EvCC as soon as this coming fall in an attempt to reduce the college's printing expenditures.

On May 6, Governor Christine Gregoire signed into law the new paper recycling and conservation act, which aims to reduce state-funded printing costs by 30 percent.

State officials said that this could save the state about $1 million per year, according to a story in the Everett Herald.

The IT budget, which comes from state funding, is what pays for the paper, toner, ink and other consumables for campus printing. This is where the vast majority of the college's printing costs come from.

Michael Klim, director of information technology at EvCC, said that the printing limit was something that the college had already been working on, but now with Gregoire's request it is something they need to implement soon.

"We're trying to keep the cost down, without putting an unfair burden on our students, and I think this will work," said Klim. He also said that "an equal benefit to keeping our cost down is that the campus is working really hard to be a green campus."

Right now the college prints an average of 600,000 pages per month. Klim also estimates that altogether the college spends $40,000 per month in printing costs.

Many colleges already have a printing limit for their students, including the college that Klim had formerly worked for.
Around 95 percent of students will print around only 250 pages per quarter, said Klim. The 300 to 400 limit is the same amount that most other colleges use.

Some other colleges make students pay for all printing; however Klim said that is not a strategy he wanted to use at EvCC.
Klim said that they probably don't have enough time to implement the printing limit for summer quarter, but that it will likely be in place by fall quarter.

EvCC will use a software program called Papercut to keep track of how much printing each student does.

If a student reaches his limit he can borrow some of a friend's printing or he can go to a cashier and purchase additional pages.

"We can't meter staff, or limit how much they print. But what we can do is print a report and see who are the top printers on campus and we can see if there's something we can do with them on a one-on-one basis to get them to rethink how they print," said Klim.

When Klim talked to the ASB senate, many students voiced concerns about faculty putting the printing burdens of classes on the student.

Mariska Alexander, a student senator, said "a lot of teachers put pressure on the students to do the majority of printing," on an April 24 senate meeting.

Klim encouraged students to voice their criticisms themselves. "I think the biggest voice, the voice larger than mine, is yours," he said, although he added if "you're concerned about retaliation, talk to your dean and he can handle it in an anonymous way."

"We're going to be working with instruction and let them know that this puts a burden on students and it puts a burden on IT," said Klim during the May 29 student senate meeting.

Many student senators were also concerned about club leaders and student workers who usually print a large amount of pages per quarter, however Klim said that exceptions will be made for special positions on campus.