PantherPrint -- Stirring an old hornets' nest

A bit of history for the newer students here at UWM:

Once upon a time, there was a time when students could print "for free" in the I&MT computer labs. To be honest, anyone with a valid PantherID could print, as there was no card reader attached to the printer.

However, like every other service here on campus, it was doomed. Although there is a technology fee assessed as part of tuition, apparently nobody thought to apply part of it to cover the printing costs. So this cost recovery system known as PantherPrint came into being. (Ever notice how things supposedly become cool if they make reference to the school mascot, such as PantherPrint and PantherProf?)

The response at the time was that the Education Technology Fee didn't cover printing costs. However, as is documented at https://www3.uwm.edu/imt/services/campus/printing/questions.cfm, Education Technology fees are used to subsidize the printing cost in part. (That's supposedly why we pay 6 cents per sheet instead of 8 cents.)

I appreciate the efforts of the students who worked hard to ease the burden this imposes on the entire student body. But there are still several questions that have yet to be answered. Why can't we just add a bit to the Education Technology Fee and print what we need? What are students who are barely scraping by financially and have no print access by other means supposed to do when their professors assign large papers? Or the others that expect that their mountain of e-reserve reading be brought into class for discussion? Students should never have to choose between printing necessary class materials and paying bills.

There are some who would see an issue regarding high-volume users printing large numbers of documents for personal use. If that proved to be a problem, that could easily be solved. Assume that an average student prints 100 pages a semester for school work, for example. Give each student a card at the start of the semester to cover that amount, and those who exceed the print limit can pay for any excess. If a professor needs to have extra pages printed by each student, have an additional print card with enough credit to cover the costs available.

We who have been here before will not forget. Neither should you.