I recently read the Emerald article concerning the decision to charge a fee for printing in student labs (“Add a fee, save a tree,” ODE, June 30). I would like to point out that a case of paper purchased at retail prices at Office Depot costs about 1 cent per page. To charge 5 to 10 cents per page would be an act of extortion, as I am sure the Computing Center buys copy paper by the pallet at wholesale prices. The cost wholesale would have to be, at most, one-half cent per page.
It is no secret that with free printing, unnecessary pages are printed. I agree with the idea of a fee structure. However, I have a friend who works as a corporate sales executive with paper mills nationwide. He informs me that there is a worldwide paper glut. With a slower economy, this fact should be evident, as businesses are not using as many paper resources. Prices for paper have been at record lows.
We all know by doing simple math that our “technology fee” of $225 per year, multiplied by 20,000 students, equals $4.5 million in revenue for the computer labs. To charge any more than 3 cents per page (paper and toner expense) is obviously an attempt to generate profits above and beyond what we already are forced to pay.
If the labs charge 5 cents per page, I can see that the revenues would be more than $116,000 with 2,335,000 pages printed last year. According to the article, last year’s paper and toner expenses were $52,000. At 5 cents, the labs will make an extra $64,000. Does this mean we get a refund of our tech fees? I don’t see that happening, but I do see a heavy student protest in the making.
At 10 cents per sheet, we would be better off having Kinkos take over the labs. I would hope that the Computing Center chooses a fair (at cost) price for printing and avoids the temptation to profit from the students who don’t forget that they paid a heavy fee before walking in the door of any lab on campus.
Mark Nelsen is a senior journalism major.