Woodbridge High School has implemented a new policy where students now must get their print job approved in order to print more than five pages in the media center due to the increase in student printing, according to school librarian Keith Clarkson. Before the new policy, students went through 1 ream, 500 pages, during a ten minutes snack period.
“There are mainly two reasons for starting this new policy,” Clarkson said. “The first is because during snack when people print and the printer jams, that makes everyone late to class. The second [reason] is when people are waiting for their print job to come out, they think the paper didn’t come out and they go print it out a second time.”
Students will continue using the current color printer for three to four weeks and then switch to a black-and-white printer when the toner runs out. Clarkson said the school could not buy a new toner because of the budget freeze in the Irvine Unified School District.
“We’re not trying to discourage students from printing,” said Clarkson. “We just want to limit the amount that they print.. “We will give priority printing to papers that are absolutely essential for school. Otherwise, we’ll have to reconsider what students are printing.”
The librarians will approve the print job if they believe it is required for class. Other librarians and some counselors will soon also have access to the printing database to approve print jobs.
“I don’t really like the new policy,” Yujin Lee, freshman, said. “It seems like a hassle but I understand that we need to cut down on printing.”
Other faculty members weigh in on her argument.
“We really wanted to give students the opportunity to print freely,” Erica Dietz, librarian, said. “It has come to this because of many reasons, but this (idea) may not be the best option.”
Hi Hoyeon! It’s been awhile since the last time we were in the same group, huh? 🙂 Hope you’ve been doing well. Anyways, regarding your article, this new policy is due to budget cuts, right? At my school, the limit for print is 5 pages max. in the library 🙁 I can’t believe budget cut is affecting us this much!