Spiva Library stalls charge on printing
By Jacob W. Brower

Associate Editor

Students at Missouri Southern are enjoying one thing that does not require money.

For now, that is.

The Spiva Library has eliminated charges for printing off library computers. The charge was levied for the 2001-02 school year to offset the costs of student printing.

College administration this year is underwriting the costs of paper and toner. The library is using this time as a test to see whether the charge was needed, and whether it needs to return.

Printing off library computers last year required the use of a prepaid copy card, sold in increments of $2 and $5. Students were charged 5 cents per copy.

The copy card system is still in place for the copy machines.

"I'm sure the students appreciate it," said Wendy McGrane, interim library director. "Hopefully, this [trial] will run the full academic year. I'm sure administration will look at the cost this spring when we look at next year's budget."

Students are pleased.

"When I first started here, [the copies] were free, and I guess we abused it and printed too much," said Lara Blankenship, junior art education major. "Last year, it was quite a switch when we had to pay 5 cents, so it's nice to have them free again."

Another student welcomes the change.

"I think it's probably a good idea, because students have enough expense being here, and tuition has increased," said Valerie Boswell, junior science major.

Library officials are hoping the system will stay in place for a while. There were many reports last year of copy cards being misread and the system not allowing students to utilize the last few cents on their cards.

"The reason we went to the payment system way back is because they were being abused," said Bob Black, reference librarian. "There were people out here who were printing, literally, 100 pages a day. We had to do something.

"We said, 'OK, if you want to print out the Internet, you can pay to print out the Internet.'"

Black said he hopes the trial will be permanent.

"If the users, the students, use it responsibly, then we won't need to go back to a payment system," he said.