Oklahoma Christian University has so much top-of-the-line technology on campus that the current printing system does not make sense. Printers are shoved in corners with no resource for freshmen who do not know where to find them. Printers are jammed, dysfunctional or unable to print your paper half the time with no reasonable explanation. Not to mention, the Student Printers site can take seconds or minutes to load. The print system has also had campus-wide shutdowns in the past. For such an essential part of student life, printing at Oklahoma Christian is needlessly complicated and could use an update.
Printers tend to congregate in lounges and the library, but to find them, students must have a keen eye. Even after finding a printer, students may be disappointed by the one they have found. Only several printers can copy, some cannot print double-sided, and only older students know the secrets of which printers can print in color. The tech support articles which help with printing are buried amid dozens of others, and there is no resource to adequately explain the copying and scanning process. Students must rely on classmates or nearby faculty to help them.
Printing itself is another matter. The printers may decide to jam, flash an error message, or not print your piece at all. Students learn quickly to only submit Word docs or PDFs, lest the printer reject it. Paper may be relatively cheap, and luckily so is printing at Oklahoma Christian, but time is a far more valuable resource which students waste trying to print their papers properly. Although printing a single page in black and white costs $0.065, and printing 22 pages is only $1.43, I spend far more time trying to get the print system to register than I ever do waiting for my term paper to print out.
Printing also requires Wi-Fi. Outages happen, but students still have to print. There is nothing students can do if there’s no internet access other than beg their friends who skip the Oklahoma Christian printing process and have their own printers at home.
Lastly, even though The New School Free Press says printing money is actually just free paper, not tuition money, the fact remains that most students do not need that much free paper. Students chip infinitesimal amounts off their balance, wasting pages of paper. Yet, other students have to add money to their accounts just to survive the semester. Sheet music, lab reports and scholarly articles all demand significant print funds throughout the semester. It seems to be a waste to print money in areas where it is not needed when biology students, engineering students or language students need it more. Why can’t students transfer print money to friends if their friend runs out?
Overall, this university needs to update its printers and its printing system. The old machines, the faulty printing site and the skewed print balance complicate the process for new and current students. The printing website gives adequate instructions, but when things go wrong, there is nothing to be done but beg faculty to help. Oklahoma Christian can afford to do renovations – can they start on the printers?
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