I’m disappointed (and embarrassed) that I was misquoted in Monday’s Northern Star. The article about print management in the ITS Computing Labs contained several errors. Wednesday’s editorial on the same subject also had inaccuracies. Therefore, I would like to clarify:

1. To my knowledge, ITS has never explored the concept of imposing a fine for the abuse of systems.

2. There is no paper shortage that I am aware of.

Most importantly…

3. I never implied that our lab attendants were “ignoring” the rules. On the contrary, our lab attendants have been put in the difficult position of enforcing printing rules without technical assistance for too long. NIU is joining the myriad of universities nationwide that are installing print management technology as a way to protect the resources of students who do follow the rules from the careless practices of those who do not.

Printing rules at NIU were established in the 1980s. The new print management technology is a way to automatically enforce these rules. In ITS student computing labs, the printing page limit is 32 “images” or 16 duplex pages. Multiple copies of the same document are not allowed. By putting automatic controls in place, we eliminate the after-the-fact abuse of our longstanding rules on printing in student computing labs. Many of our distributed support partners on campus are considering the same technology.

As for the banner page associated with each printout (we call them “jobs”), it is in place to establish ownership of each one as it emerges. Otherwise, in a busy lab environment, you wouldn’t know where your job ends and the next one begins. Often, successive jobs look identical, especially when students from the same course use the same lab. It also provides some privacy over the content of the printout so that others won’t read it when they are assembled openly for pick-up (as is the case in the busiest labs). The use of banner pages has been discussed in-depth, and all who have investigated the issue agree it is necessary. We will continue to explore ways to eliminate banner pages in the future.

Thank you for the opportunity to share these facts.

Elizabeth Leake

Information Technology Services