According to the Go Green Printing initiative, we as a university printed 1.6 million sheets of paper during the 2018-2019 year. We understand that Arcadia University wants to lower their environmental impact, and lessen their economical costs of printing. We believe that this new printing initiative may cause us, the students, more harm than good. The Go Green Printing page tells us that this new change, a $20 allocation, will provide for 500 pages of paper and only effect 10% of the student body. However, for those of us who are in 1+ labs, graduate and undergraduate classes that require small sections of textbooks to be printed out, students who learn better from printed class notes instead of online slide shows, students who have teachers that require articles or passages to be printed out, and so many other students, we are already facing the problem of running out of printing paper. 

We want Arcadia University to restore the free printing that was promised to us upon admission to the university, but we want to do it in another environmentally responsible way. 

To us, it appears as though the university has gone from one extreme to the other: seemingly unlimited printing to a flat balance of printing allowance. Many of us were not even made aware of this change until faced with it on campus. 

We want to restore printing for many reasons. Some students cannot afford to purchase more printing and relied on the university to provide printing services. Also, research has shown that students will learn better from print material versus an online version. Furthermore, many teachers, labs and lectures alike, require that students print materials for class. Those printouts quickly add up, and for some students, its too much. 

We propose a compromise with the university. In order to maintain a better environmental impact, but still maintain the free printing that Arcadia University advertised and promised us, we the students agree that we should be permitted free printing at a daily limit of usable pages.

This limit, considering the coursework of some students, could potentially be as low as 15-20 pages permitted a day. This could even be applied to a weekly balance of paper, potentially ranging from 75-150 pages maximum per week. This decision can be left to the university, but know that many of us students are relying on this decision to be changed.

We know the university has attempted to remove free printing before, and we know that student protest restored it. If they could do it before, we can do it now. 

Thank you for your consideration. 

SOURCES:

https://www.arcadia.edu/university/offices-facilities/facilities/arcadia-cares/go-green-printing

https://www.npr.org/2016/04/17/474525392/attention-students-put-your-laptops-away

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/08/16/which-better-reading-print-or-screen

https://hechingerreport.org/textbook-dilemma-digital-paper/

For Photo: https://www.arcadia.edu/university/giving-arcadia