New CCI printing limits affect nearly 2,000 UNC students

About 2,000 students ran out of their allotted Carolina Computing Initiative printing money last semester due to rising costs, forcing them to take money out of their pockets for more paper.

With the cost per page now sitting at 10 cents instead of 5 cents — a change implemented by Information Technology Services in the fall — students are only given 400 pages of printing, rather than last year’s 800.

Jeremiah Joyner, manager of ITS Labs and Systems, said the number of students who exceeded the $40 allotment jumped from about 1,100 in fall 2010 to about 2,000 last fall.

But also contributing to the growing number is an increase in students using the printers — about 3,000 more students used CCI printing in the fall, he said.

“(This past) fall there were 30,000 students that got the printing allotment. Two thousand out of 30,000 that printed more doesn’t seem to be that big of a number,” he said.

Although the amount of people who exceeded the allotment increased, Joyner said it is important to keep in mind the large number of students who don’t use all of their printing money.

Last spring, students printed about 280 pages on average. Joyner said 12 percent of students printed more than 700 pages, and 25 percent did not print anything at all.

But students who have run out said they are frustrated with the increased costs and the need to add money to their expense accounts.

Freshman Madison Kelly said she went past her allotment by about $7 last semester.

“Syllabuses are usually about, you know, 10 pages, and then you have practice exams, practice problems. It’s just a lot,” she said. “But it would be helpful if we had more money for printing.”

Sophomore Pierre Lourens said his printing money started running out quickly because of a creative writing class.

“I had to print out copies of all the stories …so that took like $17 very quickly, whereas last year I probably would not have had that same problem.”

Joyner said CCI would not return to providing 800 pages, but could increase the allotment by smaller amounts in the future.

“If we increase allotment by 100 pages, we could probably help out another 1,000 students,” he said. “(It’s) the question of looking at it again and making sure that we don’t encourage people to print more than is appropriate, but also again trying to make sure we’re providing the service to the majority of students.”

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