This entry is a reposting of a Rice Thresher article.
by Cameron Wallace, Rice Thresher
February 13, 2018
The Office of Information Technology will refund students who have been overcharged on printing since last summer as a result of an error in printing software, according to a mass email sent to all Rice students by OIT Campus Services Director Mike Dewey on Monday.
The OIT website states that, when printing, students will pay per piece of paper, meaning that printing duplex should be less expensive than the alternative. Since last summer, however, an error in Owlnet printing software settings resulted in students paying for two sheets of paper even when printing duplex, Dewey said.
Donaldo Almazan, a Brown College senior, said that he and a friend, Jonathan Pan, another Brown College senior, first noticed that they were being charged for two pages when being duplex last summer while taking summer classes. After discovering the problem, Pan and Almazan began taking screenshots immediately.
“Me and Jonathan were working in Mudd Lab one night, when we were in summer classes, and we were going crazy with it coming up with conspiracies when we found out,” Almazan said.
Pan said that after being initially shocked by the realization, he later attributed it to a misunderstanding in printing policy, and believed that the wording on the website was simply misleading.