Information Technology plans to keep the print quota after it has successfully reduced resource waste since its implementation a year and a half ago.

“The print quota is working as it was intended,” Curtis White, Vice President of Information Technology, said.

The quota was implemented to cut back on unnecessary resource waste.

“We created it to save on toner cost, ink cost, regular wear and tear and not just paper cost,” White said.

While some students may say that the 400 page quota is too small to adequately meet needs, the research and data gathered by IT tells a different story.

“Only a couple students go over the quota,” White said. “Many are way under.”

IT’s research from the fall semester of 2009 shows that, of all the students taking at least one class on the main campus or seminary, only 2,822 students, or 83.7 percent, printed at least one page, leaving 551 students, 16.3 percent, having never used the school’s printers.

Data showed that of the students that printed at least one page 72.2 percent of students have printed less than 200 pages. Only 785 students printed more than 200 pages and of those students, only 50 students went above the print quota of 400 pages.

Approximately 15.4 percent of students printed less than 30 pages on school computers.

“It really depends on a student’s major,” White said. “An English major will print considerably more than a math major.”

White explained that IT knows about the sharing that students do to stay under quota.

“We don’t want to be the print police,” White said. “We know sharing goes on and we are fine with that.”

White also encourages students who are approaching the maximum of their quota to share with a roommate or a friend to avoid having to pay for more prints.

“Some students pay for extra prints,” White said. “But there is an extremely small number of students who are over.”

White said that the print quota has worked exactly how the university had hoped and will be continued in the future.

“The print quota has behaved exactly as it’s meant to,” White said.

IT hopes that the 400-page quota will continue to be enough for students. They are working on other methods to keep students under quota, including adding 100 pages to the quota during finals week to help students while printing off their final projects.