By Kiran Sidhu Assistant Editorial Editor
All Hofstra students have experienced frustration with PridePrint. Whether it is the arduous task of installing it correctly on your laptop or the unfailing tide of technical difficulties that besiege us right when we have to print that paper worth half our grade, PridePrint is an example of outdated technology and should be done away with starting next year. It’s time we allow students to print what they like, when they like. Unfortunately, PridePrint will continue to vex students into the foreseeable future.
For the price of $120 the administration graciously allots us 1200 printed pages per year, which at first glance seems like an unnecessarily large amount. In the Golden Age of technology, when would anyone ever need to print over a thousand pages? Additionally, 10 cents per page doesn’t seem like a lot to sacrifice, especially considering our inflating tuition. However, this blanket of security is just an illusion, and it will vanish as quickly as your credits. As second semester progresses, the panic has started setting in around campus and a new grave situation has arisen: Many students are running out of printing credits.
Though it might not rock the foundations of the University, it is still a problem. The constant influx of papers to write and notes to print has left us printing more than we should really need to. Furthermore, teachers have been increasingly relying on online reading to use during classes. This has left Hofstra students in a conundrum that double-sided printing cannot fix: Either we stop printing our work or we fork over our own cash to pay for more credits. Yes, that means paying Hofstra more just so you can print out a few pages for your required class.
Hofstra’s website states that “through the PridePrint system, students are provided with 120 free print credits per year.” Free? Doesn’t the Hofstra administration remember the technology fee all students are obligated to pay each year? I do not think it is too much to ask for the right to unlimited printing, considering what we pay in tuition and fees to Hofstra every year. In fact, if you consider that there are some students who won’t use up their entire allowance of printing credits, along with commuters who barely print at Hofstra at all, it should all even out so that the University won’t lose that much money.
In the current system, students are losing money both when they don’t use all their printing credits and when they go over the limit; it’s a lose-lose situation for all. Even though the principle of making students pay for using university printers is absurd in and of itself, Hofstra has even done a poor job of making printers accessible. There are only 27 locations around the entire campus where you can print, a miniscule number considering how large our campus is; most of the time you will have to trek to some other building just to print a few pages.
Hofstra, please free the printer and make it easier for students to get their schoolwork done. We shouldn’t have to worry about our printing credits in between all our midterms and papers due or having to pay Hofstra more money if we need a few more printing credits. Like many of the printers around campus, this system is outdated and broken and needs to be done away with entirely.
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