Printer Points Scandal at Stockton

The Printer Point Scandal at Stockton

By: Dominic Verrichia

Every Stockton student receives a set number of printer points every semester. For undergraduate students, that number is 1600. Graduate students are allotted 2000 points. One printer point is equivalent to a one-sided printed page of black and white paper.

All Lab computers are defaulted to print double sided in efforts to save paper. In this case, one sheet of paper counts as two printer points.

Each student is also granted a one-time quota of 20 color printed pages at the beginning of their first semester at Stockton. Additional pages can be purchased for $5 in increments of 50 pages.

Color printer points do not reset every semester unlike black and white printer points. This leaves many students with zero color printer points very early. Some wonder why the black and white print quotas are so much higher than color print quotas.

Many students never come close to the black and white print quota every semester. However, the color print quota runs out almost immediately for most students.

Every student pays for printing in their tuition, so those who do not use all of their printer points are selling themselves short of paper that they paid for in the beginning of the semester. Many students are paying for printer points that are never used.

The number 1600 seems astronomical to most students who usually only print between 100 and 200 pages a semester. It brings up questions about what would happen if every student exhausted all of their printer points in a semester.

Stockton’s undergraduate population is 8,275. Each of those students are allotted 1600 pages which adds up to over 13 million pages of paper. If every student used up their print quota, it is clear the school will likely have a problem as they do not have 13 million sheets of paper on hand with enough ink to print on every sheet.

The numbers may sound alarming, but many students do not come close to 1600 pages. It is assumed that the Technology department does not expect many students to use all of their points.

The numbers may be that high so students will never have to worry about running out, while also preventing students from getting carried away. If they simply gave unlimited printing privilege to all students, the amount of unnecessary printing would increase significantly.

The reason behind such high print quotas remains unknown, but the Information Technology Services (ITS) Department located in D-127 may have more information on the topic.