Hanna Xu | Student Life

As a result, student printing has been reduced by approximately 40 percent when compared to the same period last year. We think that this is a great achievement, and that STS created a very effective policy by establishing a printing credit.

On the whole, we are highly supportive of this change. The University talks a lot about “going green,” but many sustainability policies fail to create tangible change. Last year’s Green Cup was not entirely successful and was underpublicized. The new bike path has had various delays, and debates about its usefulness continue.

This is why the new printing policy is such a great thing. It was created with the goal of reducing the amount of paper the University students waste, and as of yet, has more than done its job. A 40 percent reduction in printing over last year is the result of a very successful policy, and we believe that the policy should continue.

At the same time, the policy is not perfect. We believe that some small alterations would make the system more effective and less of a burden on students, while maintaining the significant reductions in printing.

For students who do not live in Washington University housing, a mere $5 credit for students of Arts and Sciences seems inordinately stingy. That is a total of 83 double-sided pages, which over the course of even a single month is very easy to surpass. These students are still paying for room and board, albeit from a different location than Washington University. They should not be worse off in terms of printing simply because they chose to live off campus.

We believe that off-campus students should receive a higher baseline printing credit, regardless of whether or not they live in Washington University-owned housing. Those who do pay the University room and board should receive credit additional to this baseline.

One more issue arises if there is a problem with the printers provided by the school. In many cases, the connection to printing stations fails to go through, or the printers are out of paper or ink. Even so, students are still charged for printing those pages, which they ultimately do not receive. STS allows students whose documents print incorrectly to bring the flawed printing job to STS for a reimbursement. We believe that a system by which students could lodge a complaint online and be reimbursed without having to visit the STS office could be more efficient and less time-intensive.

If these small changes are made, we believe that the University’s printing system can remain effective and still curb the amount of paper that students use. This school talks extensively about going green, and it is nice to see a policy that is both effective and, with some minute alterations, fair.

Genevieve Hay | Student Life

Barbara Braun, Director of STS, answers questions from students at the Senate meeting Wednesday night in Simon Hall.

At a Student Union Senate meeting Wednesday, students reported having difficulties with Wi-Fi in residence halls, Holmes Lounge, the DUC and the art and architecture schools.

But according to Barbara Braun, director of Student Technology Services, many of these issues are not related to STS—which, she says, made significant improvements over the summer.

“We have buildings that we’re doing improvements to…[because] students had complained quite a bit about the wireless,” Braun said. “We are still hearing from those we have yet to service.”

Addressing SU Senate regarding wireless improvements on campus, Braun noted that STS has targeted eight residential buildings in which the Internet accessibility needed to be improved.

Most of the buildings were made priorities following STS’s annual inspection of dorm routers over the summer. Other buildings, such as Hurd, were added to the list following student complaints.

Improvements in Dardick, Lien and Hurd have been completed; work on Rutledge is set to begin next week with Park and Mudd to follow.

According to Braun, STS has not received complaints about Internet issues from students in the buildings that have been renovated.

While STS is continuing to receive complaints about Internet issues in other dorms and parts of campus, Braun said STS has to be selective in which areas it targets due to budget constraints.

Outside of SU, numerous students noted that connecting is consistently an issue, though they have few complaints about wireless Internet speed.

“If I try to use WUFI-S, I can’t get the Internet to work,” freshman Alex Min said. “In my dorm room, I just use an Ethernet cable.”

Other students agreed that Internet connectivity is consistently spotty.

“It works sometimes, not other times; it works okay when you can get on it,” senior Aleena Agrawal said. “It’s always kind of been this way.”

Some students, on the other hand, said they have not experienced any difficulties with Wi-Fi this year.

“It’s fine this year; it was really bad last year,” junior Julie Castelbaum said.

STS made it a goal to improve Internet on campus this year. Student Life reported earlier this month that STS doubled the available bandwidth on campus over the summer and was planning on installing new routers in places where the Internet connection was particularly weak.

These changes include improved Internet service on campus, new printing quotas for students and a change to WUSTL Key that only requires the password to be changed once yearly as opposed to twice.

According to Student Technology Services Director Barbara Braun, the changes are geared towards aiding students throughout the school year.

Wireless Internet

The University has doubled the bandwidth on campus. The bandwidth is now 600 megabits per second (Mbit/s) during the day and 750 Mbit/s at night. This will allow students to have a faster Internet connection on campus during busy hours.

The University is also installing extra routers in places where the Internet connection has typically been slow.

“We’re hoping that by the middle of the semester, you should see improvements in the residential spaces,” Braun said.

Students are looking forward to seeing the effects of the improved wireless signal.

“I was excited when I got that email [notifying students of the change]. A lot of times last year, my signal would drop and I would have to use the ethernet,” senior Emily Averna said.

Still, some students see room for further improvement.

“Off-campus apartments still don’t have Wi-Fi. We’re not allowed to have Wi-Fi, even if we buy our own router. I’m sure they have a reason for this, but it is just not well-explained,” senior Bryan Baird said.

Braun asks that any student living on campus with a slow Internet connection in their room contact STS so that technicians can look into installing a new router.

Printing

According to Braun, the University is allocating a general printing allowance to all undergraduate students for the first time.

Every degree-seeking student on the Danforth Campus will receive a $5 printing allowance. Some schools add an additional printing allowance. This will give students who live off campus and do not receive a quota for Residential Life printing an opportunity to print class materials for free, Braun says.

“It allows all the students to come in at the same level with a flat five-dollar credit. If you are not a residential student you can at least to come to campus with a printing quota,” she said.

Students living in Residential Life housing used to receive unlimited free printing. This year, the University has imposed a $40 printing quota—added to the $5 allowance for degree-seeking students—above which students will have to pay for printing out of their own pockets, unless they are enrolled in the University’s engineering, business, social work or law schools, all of which provide additional balances.

According to Braun, this is to stop people from printing more than they need. She says that between 93 and 94 percent of students do not generally print $40 worth of pages in their dorms each year.

Most students have been understanding of the change.

“I liked having free printing, but I totally see where they are coming from charging us,” junior Adam Segal said.

Printing costs four cents for a single-sided page and six cents for a double-sided page.

Although students see the positive environmental effects that saving printing paper may have, some are concerned that it will interfere with their ability to print for class.

“It is understandable why they would do it, but a lot of people have classes they need to print a lot for,” sophomore Vinita Chaudry said.

According to Braun, STS decided on the $40 quota based on data for previous years.

“We thought it was a very fair number. We looked at all the numbers and we thought $40 was a fair number based on the data for the last two years,” Braun said.

In the last week alone, STS reported disciplining 12 students for illegal downloading in University residence halls. Typically, STS gets only two or three cases per year.

The e-mail has caused concern among students, who worry that the University is regulating their downloading and Internet use.

Students have heard rumors that STS is now blocking the downloading of torrent files. These rumors were eventually quelled when torrent downloads began working again on Tuesday.

John Bailey, manager of technical services and support at STS, explained that torrent files are typically the file transfer of choice for peer-to-peer file sharing.

“A torrent file is a type of file transfer where a single file is transferred from multiple locations on the Internet wherever pieces of the file exist,” Bailey said.

In other words, students who download torrents typically go to file-sharing websites, such as the popular www.thepiratebay.org, and choose the file they want to download. The website allows students to download these files through torrents by searching for the file on other computers and taking tiny pieces of it, which are then transferred to the student’s computer and pasted together.

Though many uses for torrents are illegal, STS director Barbara Braun assures students that the University is not blocking any specific traffic on the network, nor are they regulating any student activity, something she believes students have misunderstood.

“I had a young man in here the other day asking what STS was ‘sniffing the network for,’” Braun said. “This is not something that occurs internally.”

Braun explained that the regulating is actually done by the industries that own these copyrighted materials that people frequently share over the Internet. The industries hire people to regulate Internet users and trace illegal file sharing back to the source. When illegal activity is traced back to Washington University, the school is legally required to take action against the offender.

Punishments for copyright infringement at the school range from having network access revoked to being referred to University Judicial Authorities, and even in some cases suspension or expulsion.

At the civil or criminal level, copyright infringement can result in up to a $30,000 fine and, for willful copyright infringement, up to five years in prison.

Despite the warnings, many students don’t seem to be worried about getting caught.

“I download music illegally through torrents,” said a male freshman in Arts & Sciences who chose to remain anonymous. “Obviously it’s something that a large number of students on campus do, and their attempt to keep us from doing it is pretty much unsuccessful. I have decreased my downloading, but I haven’t stopped it.”

Other students were similarly unafraid of punishment.

“I’m not afraid of getting caught because I don’t see how they could track me down, and I don’t do it often enough for them to catch me,” a freshman business student said.

Braun said that despite protests from students, the University has no choice but to crack down on this illegal activity when it is reported to them, and she stressed that STS doesn’t relish doing so.

“People think the University is playing the part of Big Brother, and we’re not. We don’t want anyone bringing legal action against you or against the University. We want to protect you,” she said.

To find out more about copyright infringement, students can visit the STS website at sts.wustl.edu.

Thursday just before noon, Residential Life (ResLife) officials conducted brief visual searches of rooms in Umrath, looking for four Mac desktop computers that were reported missing from Umrath.

There were still two computers left in the lab.

“This is a very serious matter and is a huge violation of the trust built within our community,” Andrew McDermott, the residential college director of the Rubelmann/Umrath/Wohl Residential College, wrote in an e-mail to his residents.

WUPD is currently conducting a full investigation and asks that anyone with any information contact them.

Students were disappointed by the theft.

“I expected better,” freshman Caroline Ross said. “And it was [a] student because you need your room key to get in. It was unfair to everyone else, and this brings a bad light to our ResCollege.”

Freshman Bobby Goelz, an Umrath resident, described the searches performed by ResLife. According to Goelz, officials knocked on students’ doors, repeatedly saying, “Residential Life, open up!” When students were not present to answer, ResLife opened their doors. In the rooms, officials conducted brief visual searches lasting a few seconds to see if any students were in possession of the stolen desktops.

“I was really surprised, but I understood why they were searching the rooms,” Goelz said. “It was very shocking and a little bit scary.”

Matt Lanter | Student Life

Printing on the South 40 has increased considerably after the implementation of a printing fee in Eads.

Students on the South 40 need to continue cutting back on paper usage, according to administrators at Student Technology Services (STS). Although PaperCut software is being used in these residential areas, there has actually been a substantial increase in the amount of printing done in residential computer labs this year.

The PaperCut monitoring software is used on main campus and in the residential areas. The labs use the program, in which students have to log in to print, to dissuade students from printing more than is necessary. While the labs on main campus charge for printing, printing in dorm computer labs run by STS remains free.

Barbara Braun, the director of STS, believes that the increase in printing is at least partially due to the newly instated charges for printing on campus. She believes that students are turning to the residential computing labs for free printing instead of paying for printing on campus.

Last academic year, about 2.25 million sheets of paper were used in the residential printing labs. This year, Braun predicts that the number will be higher than 3 million.

“PaperCut helps us manage printing and cut down on waste,” Braun said. “It does not cut down on printing. Only students can do that.”

The week of March 14, 80,000 sheets of paper were used in residential printing facilities.

In the month of February alone, 29,992 sheets of paper were used in the Dardick computer lab. According to STS, this is equivalent to using 37 percent of a tree, leaving a light bulb on for 8,512 hours or emitting 258 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Braun said there are things that students can do to decrease the amount of paper being used in these computer labs. Documents are already printed double sided. Students can print two pages per sheet of paper, which would halve the number of pages printed.

The Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) has started to e-mail the top 10 users of paper each week to notify them of the high volume of paper they are using.

According to Braun, this is to help the “resources to be allocated evenly.”

The volume of paper used, particularly given the University’s reputation as an environmentally conscious campus, surprises students and members of the University community. Even so, students recognize the amount of printing that is necessary for many classes.

“We use a lot of paper,” freshman Sarah Garay said. “I wish that teachers would be more willing to let you bring your laptops into class. It could cut down a lot on paper use.”

Senior Cristina Woodhouse lives off campus. She finds the newly instated charges for the Arts & Sciences printers to be inconvenient because she no longer has a source of free printing.

Adjusting to printing less has been a learning process for many students who live off campus.

“It is inconvenient, but it is probably helping the environment, which is something we should all learn to do anyway,” Woodhouse said.

Even though printing on the 40 increased this year, the University’s newly implemented printing software, and charges, have been effective in reducing printing on campus.

Earlier this year, the University campus ushered in a series of changes with its printing programs. Both on main campus and in the residential areas, the PaperCut software was installed on computers.

For the first time, students have been charged to use the Arts & Sciences computing labs. Prior to this, students in Arts & Sciences could use the lab in Eads to avoid the library’s printing charges.

According to Marcia Mannen, associate director for client support of Arts & Sciences computing, charging students to print has caused a substantial decrease in the amount of paper wasted every day.

Last year, students would sometimes leave the labs rather than wait for their print jobs to finish, and they would come back later to reprint. As a result, about 500 pages were abandoned in the Eads labs every week. This year, 10-20 sheets are left in the lab every week.

According to Mannen, 516,572 sheets of paper were printed in the Eads printing facilities in the fall 2008 semester. In contrast, 74,796 sheets were printed last term after the charges were instated.

The business and engineering schools also started to use the PaperCut software this semester, though their allowed printing quotas are higher.

Dear 10 most wasteful printers,

We know who you are.  Though we cannot point you out in a crowd and belittle you for the gluttonous tree eaters you are, (which is what you all deserve) know that your acts do not go unnoticed—not by us, nor by any higher being. We would appeal to your empathy, point out how this community cherishes its printing, but such entreaties would only amuse you. We would exhibit your own selfishness to you if we thought you erred in ignorance.

We would demand your confession if we believed you were capable of regret. But when 10 threaten the resources of 4,000, we realize we are not addressing a conscientious bunch. Merely know that as bookbinding remains a minor at this school, there is no way your printing penchant is anything but criminal. If you are an English major printing out your latest novel-length effort, know that nothing that has happened to you is worthy of such waste. Or if you are a business school student intent on proving the tragedy of the commons, know that this is a stupid way to make your point. And if you are the kind of cheap student who will print out your American history sources rather than pay $11.95 for the paperback, know that your selfish ways are why you have such difficulties making friends.

It is unlikely that you will ever be able to repay the school. Present your penitence to whatever God you know. And hope that your fellow students, whom you have wronged irrevocably, will forgive you.
So please, go easy on the printing.

Sincerely,
Student Life Editorial Board

A GO WUSTL pilot program has been underway since mid-January. Student Technology Services (STS) representatives said it has been a success.

“The feedback has been generally good,” Director of Student Technology Services Barbara Braun said. “There have been a few hiccups along the way that were Microsoft-related.”

According to Marcia Mannen, associate director of client support for Arts & Sciences Computing, most of the questions that students participating in the pilot have raised were not technical. There have not been many questions regarding the actual program, but rather addressing issues such as mail forwarding.

The Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) has been happy with the pilot.

“It’s going to be a good transition,” said sophomore Brandon Lucius, a member of STAC. “There are a lot of tools and applications that are going to make students’ lives more organized and efficient.”

Tools available with the new GO WUSTL program include video and text chat, an application similar to Google Documents, and a global address book.

According to Braun, the global address book is among one of the favorite applications of the pilot program participants.

Issues that have plagued the new e-mail service since the pilot started include backlogged e-mail and issues with the spam filters.

Sophomore Betel Ezaz, who is participating in the pilot program, has found some of its drawbacks.

“It seems inefficient right now, even compared to what we already have,” she said. “My main issue is that it loses e-mails and that the spam folder always has legitimate e-mails. I think they can figure it out. They’ve been really good about feedback.”

To remedy the issue with regular mail ending up in spam folders, all e-mails from Wash. U. addresses have been whitelisted.

“Overall I think it will be better because of the options that are available through GO WUSTL,” Ezaz said. “It’s just a matter of working out the small issues before we go live with it. I think it’s good.”

Arts & Sciences and engineering students are making the transition from Squirrelmail.

“From our perspective we know it’s something to be excited about,” said Kristen Hornberger, communications specialist for the Engineering Public Relations & Communications department.

The business school is transitioning from a less advanced version of Microsoft Outlook.

“It’s a very smooth transition,” said Sharon Yoon, associate director of MBA student affairs. “It’s very nice I think. Students are very savvy, and this is very intuitive.”

The old e-mail accounts will not be phased out immediately; their end dates have not yet been decided.

STS will be offering a series of hour-long workshops in early March to help acquaint students with GO WUSTL. In the meetings STS will discuss how to use specific applications and how to forward mail. STS is also encouraging students to look to the GO WUSTL Web site to find answers to simple questions.

Expectations for the program’s success are running high.

“If the pilot program was any indication, it was pretty smooth,” Braun said. “I don’t think it will be too difficult.”

But this tradition will soon be changing. The Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) and Student Technology Services (STS) have teamed up to reduce printing waste in residential halls.

Their solution is a system that enables students to print to a virtual universal printer from anywhere in Residential Life housing. They can then go to a printer anywhere on the residential campus and release their print job from that printer. But they must actually be in the computer lab to print the job.

Members of STAC and STS hope this system will cut down on the number of pages students print and never pick up.

The new system is managed by PaperCut. PaperCut gives Washington University technology services the power to implement many different sanctions, including paper quotas, fees per sheet of paper and the new release system.

Members of STS have high hopes for the new system.

“We hope that by having to physically be at a printer, that will cut back on the amount of waste,” said Barbara Braun, director of STS.

Although STS has not kept count of exactly how much waste there has been in the past, employees say they often observe a large number of packets that just sit in the computer labs until someone recycles them.

Students have also noticed this wastefulness.

“There’s this big tray full of paper that nobody ever uses,” sophomore William Swanson said.

Few students have reported problems with the new system.

“I think that so far students’ reaction to it in res-halls has been really positive,” said John Bailey, manager of STS. “I think the students like that you can print to the system anywhere and release it to any printer in the system…which I think is a nice thing they didn’t have before.”

Students also seem to understand the need for the new system.

“In terms of wastefulness, yes, it’s a good idea. In terms of convenience it might not be, but when it comes to environmental issues in general, oftentimes convenience has to be sacrificed, because in the long run what’s most important is that our environment is in a stable condition,” freshman Justin Blau said.

“I think it makes sense because if someone goes there and prints and doesn’t pick their things up, it saves paper,” sophomore Bridgette Zou said.

STS will be tracking the results of the new program over the next few semesters.

“We’re going to be monitoring this fall and this spring, working with STAC to see how printing totals compare and watching recycle bins to see waste anyway,” Braun said. “We’re taking it out for a test drive, and we’ll see what happens.”