Putting Print Credit To Use

At the end of each academic year, many New School students scramble to use what is left of their print-point credit before it expires on August 15. Now, with a new year of print-credits, some students would like to see the university’s administration provide alternative ways to use their print points.

Students are allotted $150 of print-points per semester, for a total of $300 a year, which cannot be refunded or reused by student accounts after expiration, according to the University’s Information Technology website. Many students at the school find that they do not take full advantage of this amount.

“I don’t print. Never,” said Emily Spierer, a senior culture and media studies student at Lang. Spierer started using her iPad over a year ago and prefers not to print handouts for class. “I would read these huge packets and they would most likely sit on my desk. It just wasn’t worth my time or the money to go print it, or the paper. I felt like I was wasting paper.”

Other students find alternatives to wasting print-points. Aron Canter, a theater and history major at Lang, uses his leftover credit to print out decorations for his apartment.

“I don’t use a lot of what I have,” he said. “At the end of the semester, I end up printing these giant posters. In my apartment right now, I have these epic posters-one of ‘Saturn Devouring his Son’ by Goya, one’s a Klimt painting, one is a boxing painting. So I end up using [the credit], but not for conventional ways.”

However, many students are unaware of how the print-point system works, believing that their money is wasted when the credit expires. Print-points are an allocation that does not reflect a monetary value, but is an arrangement that hinders students from wasting University resources, according to the University’s Information Technology website.

“It’s not real money, it’s like monopoly money,” said Sam Biederman, the associate director of the University’s communications department. “It’s all in the same pot. Once the credits expire, it goes back to the school.”

But not all New School students feel that the print-point credit amount is too high. Many Parsons students believe that $150 per-semester is necessary, especially for creating large projects.

“I do use a lot of print credit,” said Sohee Seo, a junior in fashion design at Parsons. “I think [the print credit] is a good amount for me as a Parsons student.”

In 2011, the University Student Senate proposed an e-reader initiative that would allow students to opt into a program that would decrease their print-point credit amount in exchange for the utilization of tablets.

Aside from reducing paper consumption, some students believe that using e-readers, such as iPads, Kindles, and Galaxy Tablets, have other benefits, like enhanced portability and organization.

“It is sometimes easier for me just because I’m really disorganized, and I have papers everywhere,” said Zosha Warpeha, a BAFA student at Lang and the Jazz school. “I have been using an iPad for some of my classes instead of having to print out or bring my laptop somewhere. It’s a lot easier to be reading handouts on a tablet.”

Plans for the initiative moved forward during the last academic year, under Katherine Towell, former co-chair on the USS Executive Board, who has since stepped down, leaving the project up for grabs.

But after the USS Executive Board is elected for the current academic year, past initiatives may be readdressed.

“It’s not necessarily dead,” said Jens Astrup, a co-chair on the USS and a student at Parsons. “It’s just stalled, because no one is really behind it anymore. It’s totally possible that someone will take it up.”