Along with the increase in the free printing allocation to students, Student Body President Moneer Kheireddine said Student Government has installed printers around campus and he plans to install more based on a survey that will soon be sent out to students. ORACLE PHOTO/CHAVELI GUZMAN

Student Government (SG) has effectively pushed for an initiative that will give students a 50-cent increase in daily free printing.

With the goal of helping students attain more free printing throughout the day, SG has been focused on making the change and incorporating the daily $3 printing allowance by the fall semester. Presently, students can use an allotment of $2.50 per day. 

Printing costs 11 cents per black and white page and 20 cents per color page. With the current $2.50 allocation, student can print about 22 black and white pages and about 12 pages in color. With the $3 allocation, students can print about 27 black and white pages and 15 pages in color.  

Student body president, Moneer Kheireddine, said the topic of achieving more free printing has been a popular subject in SG for a while and he is glad the change will occur.

Along with increasing the free printing amount, Kheireddine said he has also installed printers around campus and he plans to install more based on a survey that will soon be sent out to students.

Printers have been placed in residential areas such as the Hub and in the help desk in Cypress, but SG is set on providing more printers in areas where they are needed by students.

“We know that there’s a lot of students in places such as ISA (Interdisciplinary Sciences building) or maybe in other resident halls who might not have access to printing services, so we really just want to survey our student body and see what their thoughts are,” Kheireddine said.

Kheireddine said the increase in free printing has been asked for continuously by students and it’s the first time in five to 10 years that something has been done about it. 

But before anything was legitimately increased, Kheireddine conducted a printing trial for all members of the USF campus in November. Kheireddine said the trial was made possible by allocating more money out of SG’s executive branch budget. 

“We did a printing trial to try to understand what the implications would be,” Kheireddine said. “We figured out from that data, the exact amount that would be needed to request to make it $3 permanently.”

Kheireddine said it took $60,000 in additional funds toward the contract with RICOH, the company that contracts printing services to USF, to accommodate this increase. After reviewing the data gathered by the trial, Kheireddine said he reported the information to RICOH. 

SG is still finalizing documents with the Activity & Service Fee Recommendation Committee (ASRC), but Kheireddine said students could possibly see the implementation start toward the end of summer. Nevertheless, students will have the daily $3 free printing allowance in the fall.

He then later requested the amount from the ASRC, who voted in favor of the increase and allocated the additional money toward free printing.

Kheireddine said these incorporations needed to be made so that students can get their work done more efficiently. According to Kheireddine, printing abilities and accessibility to these printers are crucial for the success of students who depend on these resources.

“Without an increase in print and without more available spaces on campuses in which students can print, we didn’t think our students had enough proper resources to go about what they need to do within their academics,” Kheireddine said.