Oklahoma Christian University, like many colleges, has a printing system for students and faculty to use. During the semester, Student Government Association’s Academic Ambassador Sydney Byers noticed a problem in the system and wanted to help change it.
Byers said she found fault with the system after not only experiencing problems with it herself, but also talked to other students and faculty about their experience.
“I noticed it was a huge problem, not just for me but for most people I talked to. Many of my professors noted issues as well, and while most people acknowledged it was a problem, no one thought we could do much about it. I wasn’t sure I could either, but it seemed worth a try,” Byers said. “So I created a short survey, partnered with multiple departments on campus, gathered the results and presented the data to Mr. John Hermes. He had already been working on something with the IT team, but our results showed how widespread the printing problems were.”
Within the survey Byers sent to students, she said most of the answers were negative, indicating a change needed to be made.
“Most students (~75%) reported either as dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the printers, with the main problems being slowness and unreliability,” Byers said.
Not only did Byers note the printing system being slow, but student Jeremiah Delcour discussed how he had difficulty actually printing papers for his classes.
“The class that I have the most printing for is my Comp II class, where we are required to print both before and during the class. When I would go to print before class, the website would operate extremely slowly,” Delcour said. “It would take a great amount of time to load every step of the process, from logging into the printing website, all the way to sending the file from the website to the printer.”
Delcour said the system often affected him and his classmates when they were not able to hand in assignments on time.
“When it did finally load, it would show every attempt I made, forcing me to delete the previous attempts or completely empty my printing balance printing multiple copies of every assignment. Luckily, my teacher did not hold this against me as it was a problem for the entire class,” Delcour said. “Most of us ended up printing our assignments after class and bringing them in on the next day of class, which caused more stress for the students and the teacher.”
Junior Maggie Scott said she hopes the issue can be resolved with regular maintenance to reduce future systematic issues.
“I hope the printer issues will be addressed by implementing a new system focused on efficiency and reliability. Investing in improved software for managing print jobs could make a significant difference. Additionally, conducting regular maintenance and gathering student feedback would help ensure everything operates smoothly,” Scott said. “These steps could reduce errors and enhance overall performance, making the printing process much more effective.”
As for a new system, Byers said testing is currently being conducted for a new system in the near future.
“There is a new system in the final stages of testing right now. I have been able to test it, and I found it to be faster and much easier to use in comparison,” Byers said. “While I do not know specifics on when it will be made available, I am hopeful it will be soon.”
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