Surviving the printer wars

Surviving the printer wars

Illustration by Maxwell King

Pierce College allows students to print at two separate locations, one in the CopyTech and the other is in the Library / Learning Crossroads, both of which can be found along the Mall.

This may be an inconvenient location for students who have classes that deviate from the center of campus which inevitably causes students to go out of their way, taking up unnecessary time and energy.

Additionally, the current printing resources can be difficult to access. A task that should only take a few minutes can sometimes drag on for much longer if it is being occupied by a train of students waiting in line. It’s efficiency issues like these related to printers, that could be solved using the likes of airprint enabled printers to allow students to print while on the go, allowing them to print while away and then pick their printed materials up within seconds from the printer. Hopefully decreases the time it takes standing in line, waiting to use the machine.

Having more student-friendly printers distributed in key locations can allow for equal spread, ensuring students are sufficiently accommodated while alleviating the stress endured from rushing across campus.

For example, in addition to CopyTech and the Library / Learning Crossroads, the Student Service Building, the Village, Art Hill and Center for Sciences would be good locations for stations.

According to the Santa Monica College website, black-and-white printing stations are available in the Library, Business Building, Science Building , Bundy Campus and CMD Campus.

This ultimately reduces the amount of traffic at any one station and can be more convenient.

According to the Sacramento City College website, students have access to five self-service printers that can be accessed through a mobile device called Wireless Go Print Stations that can be found in the Academic Computing Lab, Business Lab, Davis Center and Library Resource Center.

And going one step further, UC Santa Barbara uses a PrintSpot Printing Service at multiple locations on campus.

According to the UCSB website, “The PrintSpot service promotes the conservation of both printing resources and power, helping to make UCSB a more sustainable campus. All of the PrintSpot printers use 100 percent post-consumer content paper and feature standard double-sided printing. Additionally, the printers are set to power save mode at low usage times throughout the day.”

If many campuses can have various types of printing stations at multiple locations throughout campus, why not Pierce?