CIS installs new print station system

Matt Leung Assistant Managing Editor

New printing stations, currently under testing in the reference area of the library and the DML Lab of Computing and Information Services (CIS), are CIS’s long term solution to facilitate printing while keeping the current open computing environment. They will be in full operation in Spring 2006.

Release stations are expected to solve the printing difficulties that have been plaguing students for more than five years, according to Director of User Services at CIS John Collier.

Under this system, a central server at CIS will control the print release stations, which are recycled Macintosh computers installed with an application to regulate the print jobs and control the printers linked to them.

These stations will facilitate printing while preserving the existing freedom that users have to print from anywhere, with either Macintosh or Windows software. Collier said that Vassar’s computing environment is more open than that of many other schools, although he added, “Freedom in the computing environment is important.”

There will be three new Hewlett Packard (HP) 9050S printers connected with the print release station at the library. They will replace the existing HP8150S printers at the library and print at 50 pages per minute, or 56 percent faster than the current 32 pages per minute.

Once a user prints to a printer, he or she uses a username and password to log into the print release station to release the job. The release station will load balance, which means it will determine which of the three printers can most quickly produce the number of pages in the print job.

Additionally, the printers will print only when a user releases the print job. CIS Learning and Outreach Coordinator Jane Livingston describes this as “a first-come, first-served model that prevents people from sending jobs from their dorm rooms or other locations and forgetting to pick it up later.”

Under the current unmanaged printing system, a corrupt print job can halt printers and can prevent others from printing if a student does not realize that the job is corrupt and resends the corrupted job from multiple computers to multiple printers.

By cutting back waste with this new system, CIS expects a 60 to 80 percent reduction in paper use. “Other colleges and universities who have implemented similar printing control technologies find that charging for printing is unnecessary, because usage of paper drops so dramatically,” said Livingston.

The Sustainability Committee and Vassar Greens have been working with Shay Foley, Head of Technology at the library, to promote the establishment of the printing stations. The Committee and the Greena raised concerns to Foley about paper waste from the current printing system. According to Collier, the stations allow waste reduction because they change the printing process from an “unmanaged state” to a “managed state.”

Collier said the quick print stations, currently in operation at the library and CIS, are successful and acclaimed by many students. They will continue to be in operation after the print release stations are installed.

Livingston said, “As with all new technologies, we expect minor snags here and there, but we hope that overall we will dramatically improve the experience for everyone.”