As we all know by now, the library will soon begin charging students for printing. The administration’s complete failure at creative problem-solving is outrageous. From reading the Aug. 30 issue of Student Life, one would think not. The paper’s typically critical voice has almost vaporized under the rhetorical force of the administration’s simplistic arguments. You might be familiar with the Brookings Band’s greatest hits, which Student Life has helped catapult into the Top Ten – “Everybody’s doing it, why can’t we?” and the bluesy “Ain’t got no money.” That’s right; please ignore the neighboring, state-funded UMSL, which continues to offer free printing. Kindly overlook the $40,000 per year you already pay. Bracket our $4 billion plus endowment, and those new economics professors who will be raking in an estimated half million a year each.
Looking into the crystal ball of common sense, I can already make out some of the disasters on the horizon if this extreme pay-for-print “solution” is implemented. Additional economic hardship will confront our lower income students. Yes, it’s only a matter of cents, but look how a matter of cents nickel and dimed Barbara Ehrenreich. Delays at the library (which are already being seen as the result of confusion, technological malfunction, and the extremely lengthy login process) will cause major student dissatisfaction. Professors, who have been strongly encouraged to use ERes instead of course packets for copyright reasons, will be burdened with figuring out another material format that is financially viable for their students. Places that still offer free printing – like the ArtSci lab – will soon find themselves the recipients of the library’s gigantic burden, which will just set Wash. U. up for a repeat of the same situation in a year or two.
However, we can’t just go back to the way things were. I will be the first to admit that there were two very serious problems with the old, unchecked free printing system. First, library patrons were downright careless and wasteful. Second, the library probably doesn’t have the financial resources to be able to sustain even a restrained free printing program while maintaining a quality collection of academic materials. It’s quite possible that the library might have done the best that it could, acting alone. Give Shirley Baker a break! What do you want her to do, stop buying books?
The main problem is with the decisions being made higher up. It’s the budgetary priorities, stupid! Who decided that the library system should have so little money that it must choose between a printing program and books?! I don’t know, but it was probably the same person who set aside precious University funds for the weekly Changing of the Flowers ceremony outside Brookingham Palace in the spring.
The new printing policy isn’t just a question of giving up my hard earned pocket change if I need to print something while I’m on campus. It’s also an indication of an alarming trend in university policy, wherein Wash. U. drifts further away from the primary task of education and deeper into the business of attracting consumers (i.e. prospectives). While I realize that the university has to compete for the brightest students in order to create the best learning environment, we can’t let the means completely obscure the ends. Many would agree with me that the primary aim of the university is helping students learn. So, if a reasonable quantity of free printing advances student education, we should have it. While I can’t speak for everyone, I know that it has been very helpful for me to be able to put aside monetary concerns and just print that article from JSTOR for my research project.
Solutions? I’ve got a few ideas. Even though printing is still free now, the very fact that there is a printing station has already probably cut abuses. People won’t make so many mistakes because they will have to think before they print. A quota could be good if done right. Dean Baker said they couldn’t make it work, but I’m willing to bet that someone could. If they can charge our individual accounts for prints, they can figure out how to put some free prints on there too. Don’t like these ideas? Then I’m sure there is someone on this campus – maybe one of the professors in our top-rated economics department – who has a plan worthy of consideration.
Alexandra is a senior in Arts & Sciences. She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].