See also: Printing at the UT Arlington Library | Print Refund Request Form (MS Excel) | Printing in the OIT Computing Facilities | Using your MavExpress Card to Print

The Library operates 6 Library facilities with 17 printers. OIT operates 10 Student Computing facilities with 27 printers. Currently there is no limit on the number of pages one can print, and there is no per-page fee for printing. As a result, free printing at UT Arlington has become increasingly expensive and extremely wasteful to support. Students frequently complain about the amount of printing that other students are doing and the type of material some are printing (for example, game manuals, websites, wedding announcements!, etc.). Last year, a combined 184,669,429 pages were printed in the respective computing/library facilities. The cost in paper and toner to support this printing volume was $296,549.

The screen print below demonstrates examples of the excessive printing. This screen shot of the print queue on the first floor of the Central Library shows print jobs from 127 pages to over 1,600 pages, all by a single student.


(Click for larger view of image.)

Excessive printing and increasing costs are not unique to OIT and the Libraries, nor is it unique to UT Arlington. Many universities and public libraries have adopted a combination of printing quotas for students and per-page fees for printing beyond the quota. For example, TCU and UTSA have a quota of 200 pages per semester. It is now necessary for UT Arlington to implement similar policies.

Beginning in the Spring 2006 semester, we will adopt a generous printing quota per student for the academic year. The quota will be as follows: in the Fall semester each student will be given a $100 print quota for the academic year, which includes Fall, Spring, and Summer. New students (those who did not attend UT Arlington in the Fall) registering in the Spring semester will be given a prorated quota of $70, and new students in the Summer will be given a $30 quota (Spring will include the Winter Session and Summer will include Maymester). This is a print-only quota and is not to be considered as a cash gift. It is not refundable if not expended nor does a balance carry over from one academic year to another.

Per year, this quota calculates to:
• 1,000 pages of single-sided black-and-white laser printing at $.10 per page or
• 1,332 pages (666 sheets of paper) of double-sided black-and-white laser printing at $.15 per sheet

Student organizations will be given a printing quota of $200 in an academic year.

Faculty will also be notified of the new policies. If they need to assign large print jobs for their students, they will be encouraged to send their print assignments to UT Arlington's Campus Printing Services, which will be available for student purchase at the UT Arlington Bookstore at a lesser cost than self-print, saving student time as well as university resources.

We will use a print management system, known as Pharos Uniprint, in conjunction with UT Arlington's Mav Express system to implement and manage the quota. At the beginning of each Fall semester, students will be allotted the $100 printing quota (or the prorated amounts discussed above for new students in the Spring and Summer). The printing process will occur as follows:

1. Student logs into a computer using their UT Arlington NetID and submits a print job.
2. The student is presented with a notification indicating the cost of the print job based on page count (accounting for double-sided) to which the student either acknowledges affirmatively and the job is sent to the print queue, or cancels. When the print job is sent to the print queue, it is held there for up to two hours awaiting the student's second acknowledgment at a "print release station" (same as the current process in the Library and OIT labs).
3. The student goes to a print release station, enters his/her UT Arlington NetID, and sees a list of print jobs he/she sent.
4. The student selects the print jobs to release to the printer. The release station notifies the student again as to the cost of the print job as well as his/her available quota balance and/or monies in his/her Mav Money account.
5. The student swipes his/her Mav Express card (student ID) to authorize the print jobs release to the printer.
6. The Mav Express Card will be required to release all print jobs. The appropriate cost will be deducted from the student's Printing Quota account first. In the event a student has expended his/her Printing Quota, funds will be deducted from his/her Mav Money account. Deposits may be made to the Mav Money account online at www.uta.edu/mavexpress, in person at the Mav Express Office or Bursar Services, and with cash at the self-service terminal in the Central Library.

A process will be in place whereby designated Library/OIT "supervisors" can refund students within 24 hours for print jobs that are damaged by the printers or otherwise unacceptable.

All of the Library and OIT public PCs have both CDRW drives and USB ports that support flash drives (a.k.a. pin or thumb drives). As an alternative to printing in some cases, students can save files to their own CDRW disc and/or thumb drive for future reference rather than printing a hard copy.