Abuse
Use of Printing Facilities
By
Joe Lee
|
|
|
Providing the best services and facilities for students is
one of CSC's goals. Therefore, in 2002, the CSC installed
130 laser printers in the CSC Student Terminal Area and provided
free laser printing facility to students to encourage academic
work and learning. After installation, students enjoyed using
this facility and the usage was closely monitored. From time
to time, we gave guidelines to students and seek their assistance
to reduce toner consumption. During year 2002-03, the consumption
of toner was maintained at a satisfactory level. In view of
printing needs, the CSC increased the budget of laser printing
by 11% even though the central budget was reduced by 15%.
However,
when Semester A commenced in September 2003, the situation
was worsened dramatically. Toner consumption was 2~3 times
as before. In September and October, about 40% of the total
budget had been consumed. We did discover abuse cases and
gave warnings to the students. Unfortunately, the situation
had not improved. If we allowed the situation to deteriorate,
our laser printing budget would be used up in two months.
As toner consumption had reached an intolerable level, in
early November, we reluctantly implemented more stringent
measures, such as reducing the number of laser printers, increasing
the number of Express Printing stations, replacing toners
less frequently, removing toners from some printers and inviting
students to bring their own toners to restore the balance.
Meanwhile, the CSC looked for long-term solutions to solve
the laser printing problem.
According
to our observations, we believe the following are the major
contributing factors for the sudden increase in toner consumption:
-
Students
print a lot of promotional materials mainly for election
purpose (for example, Student Union election and Society
election).
-
Teachers
put course materials online and stop delivering handouts
to students so that students have to download and print
their own copies by using the laser printing facility.
-
Abuse,
including printing a large amount of personal materials,
helping friends to print commercial materials, stealing
toners by swapping in used ones, and inviting outsiders
to use the printing facility by lending them their student
ID cards, and so on.
While we have
no intention to cause any inconvenience to our students, especially
those disciplined ones, we do depend on the co-operation and help
from students and staff to make free laser printing services possible
in spite of financial difficulties ahead. Students can help reduce
wastage by printing what is absolutely necessary, and prevent improper
use by reporting suspected abuse cases to the CSC Service Counter
immediately. On the other hand, teachers can help by considering
students' printing needs as a factor when posting course materials
on the Web.
We have received
many constructive suggestions from students and staff after our
announcement on 5th November 2003 on the provision of laser printing.
After reviewing the current situation, we have standardized the
printer provision in our Student Terminal Area to one printer for
every 8 workstations and, at the same time, increased the number
of Express Printing stations from 5 to 10 to accommodate more student
needs for small-quantity and urgent printing. After the implementation
of the above-mentioned measures, toner consumption had returned
to about the normal level by the end of November.
In mid-December,
we introduced a print quota control system for trial in the 3 large
terminal rooms. The system will be extended to cover the whole Student
Terminal Area before Semester B commences. Usage data will then
be collected and analyzed during the trial period to find out user
behaviour, use patterns, and support requirements.
We shall continue
to monitor our printing situation and work with the representatives
from the Student Union to look for better long-term solutions. In
the mean time, let's join hands in making free laser printing services
affordable on our campus.
|
[login required]