At the end of this past summer, OIT officials completed an overhaul of the printing systems in computer labs across campus. The new system, ePrint, will save students time at the often crowded print stations, as well as reducing the amount of paper used overall.
ePrint was introduced to combat recurring problems encountered by students when printing in the public clusters. Under the old system, too many students often printed to the same machine, causing jams and backups. In addition, different jobs would pile up causing students to spend significant lengths of time sifting through others' documents. In many cases, this would force individuals to print the same document several times.
With ePrint, students click the print command at their computer, entering the job into the ePrint system. They can then swipe their DukeCard at any printer in any lab on campus, and select the jobs they wish to print. This will prevent confusion at the printers, and allow students to avoid broken or backlogged machines.
The ePrint system will also allow students to print to any lab or quad print-station on campus using their dormroom computers or wireless internet connections. By downloading software provided by OIT, the need to buy a personal printer for your room will be largely eliminated. However, students who need to print in color may still need to depend on personal printers, as most cluster units will not print in color.
Another benefit to the new system is its history of reducing the amount of paper used in the labs. ePrint is already in use at several other major universities, where paper waste was reduced as much as 20 - 40 percent. This will aid in the university's initiative to further itself as an environmentally conscious institution.
The primary caviat in the implementation of ePrint is that it could easily allow OIT officials to monitor each student's print jobs, limit them and charge them for printing. While OIT employees stress that there are no plans to charge students at this time, many other univeristies currently use ePrint to charge their users.
Overall, the ePrint system is a vast improvement over the old printing structure in the public computer clusters. It will save individuals time and money, while keeping the amount of paper waste to a minumum.
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