In an effort to become more environmentally sustainable and cost effective, APSU will require students to use Pharos, a print management system, to limit the amount of paper printed on campus.
Starting May 31, students must swipe their student ID at a printing station and have the cost of the paper subtracted from a $30 credit. At the start of each semester, the $30 credit renews and does not roll over to the next semester. APSU is implementing Pharos to drastically cut down on paper wasted by students and make the university greener, according to Laura Prange, head of the Pharos task force.
Prange said a single sided black and white printout will cost eight cents, a double sided black and white printout will cost 10 cents and a one-page color paper will cost 25 cents. If a student uses the allotted $30 before the end of the semester, they will pay out of pocket for all other printouts made.
Currently, APSU spends $120,000-$135,000 each year on all services related to printing including paper, toner and maintenance, according to Prange.
Pharos cost the university $50,000 to purchase and costs APSU an additional $8,000 a year to maintain the software license. The money to buy the program and license the first year came out of the Campus Sustainability Fee fund and APSU will maintain the software license in future years with money saved by using Pharos, according to Prange.
In addition to Pharos, Prange said APSU has been encouraging all the offices on campus to move towards becoming paperless and using digital forms of communication. While faculty and staff will not have to use Pharos, Prange said an initiative led by professor Robin Reed is in place to research ways university employees can conserve paper in their offices and classrooms.
SGA President Will Roberts serves as the student voice on the committee. Roberts said he voiced many of the concerns students may have about Pharos, including how the system works and where the money for the $30 credit would come from.
Both Prange and Roberts said most students will not feel the effects of the new initiative and Pharos will help deter wasteful printing.
“Hopefully people keep in mind what they are printing,” Roberts said. “Not going in there and printing a book or a hundred page article for a class.”
SGA will host a town hall style meeting on April 4, at 6:30 p.m. in the library where members of the Pharos Task Force will answer any questions students have. Prange, Roberts and representatives from IT and Finance and Administration will be present at the event to address student concerns.
Roberts said students should think before they print.
“People just have to realize that as students we’re not having free printing taken away from us,” Roberts said. “We will have a pretty big allotment and as long as you think before you print something off that you don’t need, [then] you’ll be alright and there’s not going to be much adjustment.”
