Sheridan’s Pay for Print program goes green

STORY BY NAT GILPO

After three years of planning, Sheridan’s Pay for Print program will launch at the end of the month, potentially saving the college 10 million sheets of paper annually.

 A total of 60 new printers have been placed in hallways across Sheridan campuses as part of the program’s third and final phase of introducing a global print queue called “Green,” according to the college’s chief of information technology, Sumon Acharjee.

“We’re excited for the new technology, and it’s going to move the institution forward in terms of sustainability.”

 “We’re at the point where we’re formally rolling out a new print infrastructure based on experiences from the past phases,” said Acharjee. 

 The “Green” print queue will make it possible to print to any printer from anywhere in the campus. The program has been introduced to help prevent students from printing jobs, forgetting them, then reprinting, resulting in unnecessary use of paper.

 “We have seen significant reductions [in paper consumption] since introducing the global print queue, and I think Pay for Print will drive it further,” said Acharjee.  “We’re excited for the new technology, and it’s going to move the institution forward in terms of sustainability.” The CIO said he hopes the new program will help students and staff be more accountable for what they print.

 The project has been done over the course of three phases: testing printers with a new infrastructure at Hazel McCallion Campus, adding it to the Trafalgar Campus Learning Commons, and then being tweaked based on student feedback. The college is hoping to cut the total of paper consumption in Sheridan by 10 million sheets.

Printing sheets is a central part of life at the Learning Commons for students and staff.

As part of the new program, the number of printers in classrooms will be gradually reduced.

 “There are some classes and labs where printers are necessary, so over the course of the fall we’ll be working with the college’s faculty members to make sure that we understand the proper printing requirements for each program,” said Acharjee.

 IT Management’s Alex Virapen says he is happy for adjustments made to Pay for Print’s interface.

 “Personally, I’m very excited for printers that are more accessible to folks in wheelchairs. We’ve personally done an exercise with the college’s accessibility coordinator to make sure we have a percentage of printers in the hallways that are lowered down so they can be accessed more easily,” said Virapen.

 The Office of the CIO has also announced that the new print rates will be 4 cents per page, with a 25 per cent discount for double-sided print jobs once the Pay for Print program goes live later this month.

Additional details about Pay for Print can be found on Sheridan’s IT Website