I hate NIU’s policy that allows students to only print one copy of a document at a time in the computer labs on campus.

It is just annoying, and because it is so easy to get around, it serves no purpose.

I have forgotten about the rule multiple times and have been unable to print my document because I tried to print more than one at a time. But here is my main problem with it: I was then able to walk back to my computer, click the print button twice and then get both of the copies that I needed.

What purpose is this limit supposed to serve?

When you tried to print multiple copies before, there would only be one of those stupid cover pages. Now, when you have to print the “copies” as a number of different documents, you get more of the stupid cover pages. This just wastes more paper.

If NIU is actually trying to reduce the amount of paper used for cost or environmental reasons, I have a couple suggestions that would work better than limiting the number of copies people can print.

First, NIU should get rid of the cover pages. It is not that difficult to figure out which document belongs to you. It might take more time, but it will save a lot of paper, and the 5 cents that it costs the university to print each page, according to the computer lab printing stations.

Another (even better) idea would be for the university to encourage professors to find better ways of distributing notes than having students print off PowerPoint slides. If you think about it, having thirty students print off multiple slides for each lecture, is like killing a whole forest’s worth of trees for each class by the end of the unit.

I think these solutions would accomplish a lot more than just limiting the number of copies we can print at time, which at least of now, accomplishes nothing.