By Tyler Cathey

Teachers assign work.  Students do work.  Students print work, and eventually some students pay for it.

In ETSU's Sherrod Library all the student computers print to a central printing center.  Students go to the printing area and log into the computer.  After logging in a student will select the item to be printed, scan their student identification card and the amount for the print job will be deducted from the printing balance. 

Students at ETSU start with a $25 balance on their student identification card, which is the allowable amount of printing before students have to start paying to print.  After the $25 is exhausted students have to add funds to their accounts. 

“This was determined by the ETSU Student Technology Access Fee Committee,“ said Chief Information Officer Mark Bragg, in an e-mail interview.  “Any additional printing becomes the responsibility of the student.”

The program and service fee for a full-time student is $474.50.  According to ETSU, charges for printing are established to cover the cost of paper and toner, and are not included in student fees.  Additional printing charges are established to eliminate printing abuse, said Bragg.

The ETSU printing cost in the Sherrod Library is five cents per page for black and white printing.  The charge per page for a color printing is 15 cents.  The printing charges at ETSU are higher than other area colleges.

“Printing is two cents for black and white, and five cents for color.  It’s pretty cheap.  Fifteen cents for color is just crazy.”

                                  - UT student Alicia Adkins

"Printing is two cents for black and white, and five cents for color"  at the University of Tennessee, said UT student Alicia Adkins. "It's pretty cheap. Fifteen cents for color is just crazy."

The ETSU Kingsport campus charges 10 cents for a black and white copy rather than five like the main campus. 

“I guess it is somehow more expensive to print in Kingsport rather than Johnson City,” said ETSU history major Christopher Harvey.

The Technology Access Fee Committee determined 10 cents to be the default charge, but lab operators are allowed to appeal the cost and set a unique charge for their printer, said Bragg.

“The 10 cent per page cost was not put in place to penalize students.  It was put there to discourage abuse,” said Bragg.

Students say college courses often require a lot of printing, and a single course can retire their $25 account balance.  Students pay to go to school and take classes, which may require them to pay more because of printing costs.  The source of printing typically comes from the classes that students already pay for once.

"I've printed over 100 pages for a single class," said Linsey Rowe, a nursing major.

“I’ve printed over 100 pages for a single class.”

                  - Linsey Rowe, ETSU nursing major

Optimal use of D2L, the university’s online education tool, could significantly reduce the amount of printing that students have to do, said Harvey.  The faculty and staff should put a major emphasis on digital versions of handouts and assignments to eliminate needless waste, he said.

“If the reason we have to print is East Tennessee State then we shouldn’t have to pay, because we already paid tuition,” said Harvey.

Not all students agree that ETSU should pay for printing costs. 

The money for printing has to come from somewhere and if it is students who are printing then they should be held financially responsible, said interdisciplinary studies major Jordyn Coates.  Students have access to computers and many other services from the university which justifies the cost of tuition, she said.

“Printing is a luxury.  If we weren’t paying for it at ETSU we would still have to pay for it at home,” said Coates.  “Printing still costs money no matter what, it’s just that at ETSU they don’t pay for it for you.”

If ETSU builds in a $25 account, then every student who doesn’t print saves ETSU money.  Maybe that money should be reflected in a refund or tuition discount, said Harvey.

“If I don’t use my money set aside for printing, I feel cheated when I don’t get it back,” said Harvey.

Even though the university doesn’t refund the built-in account balance, the money not used on printing is still going to better the school, said Coates.  ETSU doesn’t count on every student using their printing funds or they would adjust the funds accordingly, she said.

The point to be made is not about the price of printing, but that ETSU has plenty of money to provide cost-free printing or at least refund the money not used because it’s not theirs, said Harvey.  The University is more financially stable than any student attending, he said.

"We need that money more than they do," he said.

"We need that money more than they do."         

                  -Christopher Harvey, ETSU student

“Tuition is cheap enough that I’m not going to complain about paying five cents to print something,” said Coates.  “Especially with all the scholarships available, it’s not a big deal.”