Rice University’s student printing charges increased for the first time in 10 years. The penny per page increase (to $0.07) per page, took place on September 15, 2015. What factors affected the price change?
Fondren Library houses printers central to all of Rice's campus
1108 More Owls
Ten years ago – in the 2003-04 academic year – Rice enrolled 2857 undergraduates; the 2013-14 undergraduate enrollment had risen to 3965. More students (1108 more) led to more colleges, more printers, more paper, and more ink and toner. Although the undergraduate student enrollment grew by 39% in 10 years, IT kept printing charges at their 2003-04 levels by extending the life of each printer as long as possible, often until parts and supplies were no longer available.
Outsourcing Paper Delivery
To keep up with a growing campus population and rising paper costs, Rice University was forced to outsource its paper delivery source in January 2012. Ute Franklin, Rice’s Director for Delivery Services said her department used to sell paper internally to other Rice departments. “Now, we have a procurement office that negotiates with preferred suppliers which allows the university to buy the paper cheaper,” she explained. The 10-year-old student print charge model proved insufficient to absorb the cumulative costs of a larger student population printing a greater volume of pages, regardless of the new paper prices.
After considering various changes to the print charge structure, the increase with the highest overall impact on revenue and the lowest individual impact to students was a penny per page for black-and-white letter-size pages. IT retained the tradition of zero cost for a second side; a duplex print job costs no more than a single-sided print job.
Printing Perks
Most students either use their own printer or pay to print in the labs, but engineers and athletes have access to student-specific departmental printers. At the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, design teams have access to printers for their projects: “Each design team is given a budget, you can print up to your budget for free in OEDK, but you can’t print for personal use,” explained Erika, a senior Mechanical Engineering student. Across campus, student-athletes have access to printers in their academic center. Ellen, a sophomore track and field athlete, says, “It’s nice to print at Tudor Field house without having to worry about the cost…I really appreciate the free printing at Tudor!”
Beautiful Duncan Hall is one of the many non-library buildings that offers printing for students in Duncan Hall 1064 as well as in the 3rd floor Computer Science Department!
Printing at Other Schools
Rice’s printing system is extremely student friendly, and relatively low cost, even with the penny increase.
- Harvard – $0.05 for a single page, $0.06 for duplex
- Yale – $0.10 per single page, $0.12 for duplex
- Stanford – $0.10 per page
- MIT – $0.10 per page; quota 3000 pages per year
- Cornell – $0.09 per page
- Unconventionally Cheap: Even with the price increase, Rice’s $0.07 per page is relatively inexpensive. For instance, a Cornell graduate recalled paying $0.09 per page, and Kat, currently a Vanderbilt sophomore, says she “pays ten cents per page.”
- Unconventionally Easy: As long as Rice students are logged into the Rice network, they can send their work to any public lab printer and simply pick it up. At universities with web print (also called cloud print) systems, students must swipe their card when they arrive at the printer to obtain their document. Since Rice students do not need to swipe, a little extra time can be saved during that morning “print and rush to class” time crunch.
- Unconventionally Accessible: Rice’s college system provides a network of printers across campus. At many universities, undergraduate students must trek to the library or the student center to print their assignments. At Rice, students have access to printers in every college lab, Fondren Library, Anderson Hall, Mudd Lab, Abercrombie Lab, Baker Institute, Butcher Hall, Duncan Hall, Sewall Hall, as well as the RMC (Rice Memorial Student Center). For instructions on how to map your personal computer to various lab printers, see the Do It Yourself (DIY) tutorial in docs.rice.edu: https://docs.rice.edu/confluence/x/RQTNAQ.
- Unconventionally Green: The duplex deal is one of a kind. Rob, a University of Florida sophomore, says, “Black and white printing costs $0.10 per page at all libraries…Double-sided pages are charged as two pages.” However, Rice allows students to print duplexes for the price of a single page – which is a good deal for students and the environment alike.
While the price of printing has increased slightly, the convenience and ease of printing for undergraduates at Rice should outweigh the cost. For more details about printing, visit docs.rice.edu: https://docs.rice.edu/confluence/x/RIRV.