A Student Association Senate survey on printing showed 54 percent of respondents were not aware NIU plans to eliminate the on-campus printing quota by the fall semester.

The Senate’s 10-question survey asking about NIU’s printing quota garnered 788 responses, only four of them by non-students. The survey was created to assess the student perspective on on-campus printing and determine if an alternative should be sought, said SA Senate Speaker Dillon Domke.

The senators “did a survey to obtain data as well as waiting by printers to get opinions from the students who use the printers,” Domke said. “We just wanted to handle everything hands-on in means of getting the student opinion as well as inform the student body.”

Students are allocated $7 a semester in printing for the current academic year, a 50 percent drop from last year’s $14, which dropped from the $21 allocated to students per semester in the 2012-13 academic year. Before fall 2012, students had unlimited free printing. By the fall 2015 semester, students will have no money from NIU to pay for printing.

Freshman undecided major Ryan Kaplar said he was disappointed the printing quota would be eliminated in the fall, but he said he was understanding and supportive of future print charges being tied to a student’s bursar account due to possible budget cuts and lack of funding for NIU.

The Senate is working toward a more student-friendly system rather than a pay-as-you-go system, Domke said. The survey asked students if they’d be interested in an opt-in or opt-out option to printing, similar to NIU’s health insurance option, where a prepaid plan would be added to students’ bursar’s accounts to allow them to apply scholarships or other financial aid toward printing costs. About 57 percent of people who took the survey said they would prefer an opt-in/out program rather than a pay-as-you-go option.

“The $7 is nice but honestly unnecessary because most students have their own printers or a friend who owns one,” said freshman economics major Danny Carlson, who didn’t take the survey. “It really isn’t something to stress over.”