ABIGAIL JACOBSON
News Editor
Most students don’t see any downside to the array of printers currently available at Reed Library. However, SUNY’s new print policy may give insight as to the amount of paper wasted by these added resources.
According to an email sent on Dec. 5 by SUNY Fredonia President Stephen Kolison, SUNY put in place the System-wide Print Resource Use Policy. According to SUNY, the policy could help “reduce cost, waste, print and paper.”
The first phase of this plan was established at Fredonia back in 2021. Information Technology Services (ITS) collected data on printer usage on Fredonia’s campus and analyzed the print environment.
The second phase of this plan started by replacing old printers that used USB connections in Maytum and Thompson Halls and bringing in a new print management solution. This phase is ongoing and will continue until the end of Jan., 2025.
According to the email, phase three will begin in Feb. of 2025. Phase three will entail the following: “ITS will work with individual departments to establish a print management migration plan and training.”
They are expected to be done with this project by the end of the 2025 calendar year.
Additionally, “There will be a required initial investment in acquiring new printers, [and] it will lead to significant savings after the first year.” It is currently unknown the origin of the funds that Fredonia will pull from to achieve the mentioned investment, considering the multi-million budgetary deficit that continues to plague the university.
The SUNY print initiative “also helps our campus reduce its carbon footprint and improve efficiency.”
According to the email, Kolison said, “I have checked with comprehensive presidents who have implemented this initiative, and they have all indicated to me that the savings are substantial.”
In a presentation shared in the email, they provided five “S” guidelines: Savings, which means SUNY would save around “$15-20M” a year; Sustainability, which includes having fewer devices which then results in less paper, water, energy and waste; Simplification, which allows fewer administrative tasks and instead offers “one number to call for service”; Standardization, where there will be three models but one software platform; and lastly, Security, where all devices on the network are secured and are capable of mobile printing.
According to this presentation, the impact of this initiative over three years will help SUNY to: reduce “the number and impact of printers by 50% and appear by 36% (225 [million] pages [per] year),” “Save 27,000 trees [per] year,” “Reduce greenhouse gas emission by 2.25 [million] pounds [per] year, or [greater than one] ton [per] year,” and “Conserve more than 23 [million] gallons of water [per] year.”
According to the PowerPoint, “If every person at SUNY that prints … printed just [two] pages fewer per day … SUNY would save [more than] $6.5 [million pages per] year.”
For more information, see the email titled “[Students] Update on the Implementation of the SUNY Print Initiative” sent by President Kolison. His presentation is linked below.
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