University of Memphis students are protesting a change in their printing allowance, a policy that administrators say is designed to cut costs, reports the Commercial Appeal [1].
The Information Technology Division has limited students to $25 worth of printing each semester. That amounts to 500 pages. In protest, students have been printing pages of solid black ink and circulating petitions.
“Printing black paper is not an effective way of protesting and sort of goes to prove the point of restricting paper to cut back on waste,” said Dean of Students William Porter.
Previously, students’ unused printing allowances could accumulate up to 2,000 pages, said Memphis spokesman Curt Guenther. “With tight budget situations facing all of the universities, the IT department decided the program has been too liberal,” Guenther said. The new policy was announced during the summer on a university web site, but students never got eMails to inform them of the change, said Student Government Association President James Johnson, surprising them when they entered computer labs this semester. The student government has collected more than 400 signatures on a petition and voted to have a student included on the committee that decides how the student technology fee is spent. Guenther said administrators plan to reevaluate the allowance at the end of the semester…
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