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Explanation Printer Paper Use Policy
- Offices and Departments
- Information Technology
- Explanation Printer Paper Use Policy
Important Details
- Each student at Commonwealth University is given an allocation of $20 of printing funds at the start of each semester. Students can print with these funds using any of the designated printers on campus. Any student who prints more than the starting $20 in the semester will be billed at the end of the semester for the overage. Please be aware that printing to a color printer without choosing the "grayscale" option will greatly increase your cost per print.
- During semester break, after the end of an enrolled semester:
- Any student who has gone over their entire allotment will be billed for the overage at the end of the semester. There is an overage limit set at $100 and will need approval to increase this limit.
- The $20 in print funds does not carry to the next semester and are non transferable.
- Students do not receive $20 of printing funds for semesters which they are not enrolled. A student is given their $20 of printing funds for the next enrolled semester during semester break prior to the beginning of the next enrolled semester.
How It Works
When you log onto a campus computer you will see an icon on the taskbar that indicates the dollar value of your current print balance.
- Before printing anything after your account is created, this value will appear as $20.00.
- Each time you print, the value will decrease.
- When the value reaches $0.00, you have exhausted your allocation of $20 of print funds.
- As you continue to print after reaching a $0.00 balance, the dollar value will appear as a negative number, based on the rate per page charge. For example, if you print 10 non-color, single-sided printouts after reaching a $0.00 balance, the dollar value will appear as a negative balance).
- Note: There are color printers on campus. If you do not intend to print in color, be sure to select the grayscale option before sending print jobs to color. If you fail to do so, you will be billed for a color print job, which does cost more.
- For Tap-To-Print Student Follow Me Printing, the release station will show your print jobs, page counts, and total cost for each job. You may release all at once or individually, but be sure to look at the printer job cost carefully before releasing your print job. Once you release the print job, the cost will be deduced from your print balance.
- Each time you print on a PC to a dedicated printer, you will get a pop-up message showing how much money will be deducted from your print balance. You will need to confirm the deduction before the job gets sent to the printer. Please read the pop-up message carefully and agree to the page cost before confirming. You have the opportunity to cancel the print job from the pop-up message, which will prevent the page cost from being deducted from your balance. If the dedicated printer has a duplexer (the ability to print two-sided), you may also get a pop-up message asking if you want to save paper by converting it to duplex (two-sided).
You may check your printing output balance any time by logging onto a campus computer and hovering over or clicking on the icon in the taskbar or by logging in with your campus credentials to printing.commonwealthu.edu.
The bill for your next semester will include printing charges for the previous semester as a separate line item in Banner if your print balance goes below zero. Inquiries or disputes regarding printing charges should be directed to the Commonwealth University Helpdesk at 877-435-7280 (option 2, 3, or 4).
What Factors Were Used to Determine Per Page Pricing
There are three primary costs associated with printing:
- The cost of printers and replacement parts.
- The cost of toner.
- The cost of paper.
Printing consultants such as HP, Xerox, Bertl Research and Gartner estimate the cost per page for black and white printing at $0.05 to $0.09. Retail outlets like Staples or Office Depot charge at least $.06 per page for self printing or copying. Other PASSHE institution print charges range from a low of $0.04 to a high of $0.10 per page. All of the above factors were considered in establishing the per page price for printing at Commonwealth University.
What Pages are Counted?
The only pages counted are those printed to a classroom, lab, or library printer. If you are a work-study student or a graduate student using your personal login to access a departmental or unit computer and non-Papercut printer, your pages will not be counted against your semester allotment. Please be sure that if you are work study at the Mansfield campus, you receive the Papercut client popup to select the department cost center that you are being required to print to (ie. If you are a work study for admissions and need to print something for your work in admissions, you will have access to the admissions fund center for printing purposes)
Be Careful and Patient When You Print
Every time you send a page(s) to the printer by clicking YES/PRINT in the pop-up dialog box, that page(s) is sent to a print queue. Please note that the print queue includes all print jobs that have been sent to the printer recently. In some cases, others may have sent jobs to the printer ahead of you and you must wait for the printer to get to your job. Be patient and wait until your print job is completed. If you become impatient and send the same page(s) to the printer a second time you will get two copies of the page(s) and, consequently, be charged again for all pages that were printed.
In other cases, there may be a problem with the printer itself. If this occurs contact the helpdesk immediately at x4357 and report the problem. Do not send the same print job a second time or you will be charged for the additional pages.
Always Log Off Classroom and Lab Computers
It is VERY important to log off any campus computer you have used as soon as you have completed your work. If you walk away from a computer without logging off the next user could print pages using your print balance or access any files you have placed on your network drive.
How To Dispute a Print Charge
There may be occasions when a printer malfunctions and does not print your job, but charges you as if the job had printed. This may occur as a result of a paper jam, insufficient toner, an electrical disruption or any one of several other technical glitches. In such cases we will adjust your account by the number of misprinted or unprinted pages.
Here's how to receive an adjustment for misprinted or unprinted pages:
Contact the helpdesk by telephone (877-435-7280 (option 2, 3, or 4)) or by visiting your campus helpdesk. Be prepared to provide the following information:
- Name
- Contact information
- Date
- Approximate time and place of malfunction and the number of pages that misprinted or did not print.
As soon as the helpdesk confirms the daily printer logs, your balance will be adjusted with the appropriate number of pages.
If the misprint is toner related, then you must physically bring the pages to the helpdesk in person and provide the same information as above. It is worth noting that we will be monitoring toner use very carefully to avoid these issues.
Please note that questions or disputes about print charges should be directed to the Commonwealth University helpdesk at (877-435-7280 (option 2, 3, or 4).
Additional Help
Information Technology