Background on the Clusters Charging for Printing

The Student Computing Clusters have charged for printing since the 1998-1999 academic year. The decision to implement a pay-to-print system was made beacuse of the extremely high cost of free laser printing. During the year prior to implementing this system, the cost of paper and toner in the Clusters was over $20,000, representing nearly 1/3rd of the annual operating budget for the Clusters at that time. In addition to the total cost, there was a very high level of waste with 100's of pages daily begin sent to the printers that were never claimed. We believe that users should be responsible for their use of resources, and charging for printing prevents everyone from paying the cost of a few individuals' high-volume printing needs or abusive and wasteful behavior.

The cost to print in the Clusters has remained constant since the printing system was implemented. Black-and-white printing cost 8 cents per sheet of paper. Since this charge is per sheet of paper, users can print double-sided (aka duplex) to get two pages for 8 cents. Color printing was added in Fall 2000 at 60 cents per page.

Users pay for their printing via the UNH Copy Cards. The Copy Card system is maintained by UNH Printing Services and is used by the Clusters under an agreement. Users who have problems with their Copy Cards should contact Printing Services at one of their Copy Center locations for assistance including replacement of malfunctioning Copy Cards.