Lately, printing at campus computing sites can get students in a rage. The cost of printing has doubled since last year, and many users aren't buying the Information Technology Division's justification for 8 cents a page.
LSA first-year student Brian Peroff said he was dissatisfied with ITD policy.
"I think it's kind of crappy," he said, waiting by an Angell Hall computing site printer to print a paper. "I'm paying a (lot) of money to go here and everywhere I go there's extra charges. There's no way to avoid it."
Kitty Bridges, ITD director of Product Development and Deployment, said the charges are necessary to keep ITD running.
"Last year we lost money on printing," she said. "We are not trying to recover from that this year, but we are reflecting this year the true cost of printing."
Bridges said the cost of printing includes networking the printers, providing print servers, printer upgrades, paper, toner and maintenance.
Bridges said the current price, deducted from users' University of Michigan Computing Environment allocations, was calculated to approximately cover ITD's costs.
"We take the cost of providing a service and in many cases we charge the cost - we don't up the charge. In some cases we might round up or down," she said.
UMCE allocates $10 per month to each user for these services, which include printing, electronic mail and file storage. Every student, staff and faculty member has an account, and users pay extra only when this allocation runs out.
Last year, printing cost 4 cents per sheet, and the allocation was then $11.50. Bridges said this year's printing problems are a result of the reduced allocation and an increase in the cost of paper. In calculating the charge, ITD estimated that 16 million sheets are printed during the academic year.
According to Bridges, the University of Wisconsin also charges 8 cents, Michigan State University charges 25 cents, and some universities don't even provide allocations.
LSA sophomore Dana Shamash, who was using the printer during a statistics class in Angell Hall, said she is not concerned because she understands the system.
"It goes automatically on your account," she said. "If you had to pay (extra), that would be a pain."
Computer Aided Engineering Network users have less to worry about - CAEN is setting up a fund to help students who use up their allocation.
"As long as the fund still has money in it, it deducts from the general fund if your account runs out," said Engineering junior Matt Guthaus.
Students outside of CAEN could run into problems if they try printing after they have run out of money -mainly that their documents won't print. Students can monitor their UMCE accounts online.
Measures to improve ITD's current system could arrive soon, as Bridges plans to set up an advisory group sometime in the winter term.
"I am committed to getting a committee of faculty, staff and students," she said.
This might make printing more tolerable to students, but some just don't approve of the increase.
RC sophomore John Targowski said, "Four cents is all right. Eight cents is a little much."
AJA DEKLEVA COHEN/Daily
LSA sophomore Susan Rasch retrieves pages from the printers at the Angell Hall computing site. ITD increased its cost per printed page from 4 cents to 8 cents this year to the dismay of many students.