Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!sdd.hp.com!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!munnari.oz.au!metro!cluster!swift!suite.sw.oz.au!andrewb From: andrewb@suite.sw.oz.au (Andrew Bettison) Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy Subject: Re: Cutting excessive student use of printer paper Message-ID: Date: 19 Jun 91 03:15:28 GMT References: <1429@sol.deakin.OZ.AU> Sender: news@softway.sw.oz.au (Usenet) Organization: Softway Pty Ltd Lines: 69 In article <1429@sol.deakin.OZ.AU> Phil Carter writes: > We are finding that students are using an enormous amount of paper and ink... In Timo Kiravuo writes: > ... [they] can't think any farther than their own nose. Like > those that print ten copies of a single document instead of using > a copying machine, since copying costs but printing does not. They're being given the wrong signals by the price structure. If you want them to think of printing as more expensive than copying, then _make_ it more expensive! > The best way may be to educate users. And have them watch their > peers. I don't think so. You can't educate people that the world is one way, when all _immediate_ evidence tells them that it patently is not. (People seem to have this peculiar tendency to believe the real world in prefercnce to what people tell them :-) > We have not yet installed print limits, but it could be done. > In the comp. sci. lab they had a limit at one time, but I don't > think that it is in use anymore. And it gets more difficult since > the systems are more and more distributed. Yes, implementation of such things is pretty tricky. (If you're interested in a _real_ solution to such problems, contact me.) > One way to limit printing is to get slow lasers instead of fast > ones. > One idea is that each printer would be given a weekly amount of > paper and ink, but that would only mean a big rush to print in > monday. No use. But instead you could announce in December that > this years budget for printing is used up, and there shall be no > printing until you can get an extra budget. What I am aming at is > to make the users feel that printing is a limited resource that > they have to care about. None of that idiotic 'there is plenty > more where that came from' culture. Not _so_ idiotic, just selfish. If the paper and ink just keep appearing, then why think any differently? Announcements from on high that there is no more paper or ink will be met with skepticism and disbelief: "why, a ream of 500 sheets only costs $8 in the shops, and ink can't be all that expensive! What's their game?" I'll agree that this sort of attitude displays a remarkable short-sightedness and lack of concern for others, but people commonly behave this way in a large crowd of strangers, especially when they think nobody is watching. I believe that people typically don't have qualms about being selfish when the ones they are depriving are anonymous: part of a great unknown herd. If you want a large crowd of users to behave responsibly, then you have to give them a system in which each individual or clique must pay for their own usage. In such an environment they will quickly form economical and responsible habits. There's nothing quite like learning by experience. If your community of users is quite small, however, then appealing to their social conscience should work. (By small, I mean that everyone is acquainted with almost everyone else.) -- Andrew Bettison - Softway Pty Ltd Phone +61-2-698-2322 Internet andrewb@softway.sw.oz.au Fax +61-2-699-9174 UUCP uunet!softway.sw.oz.au!andrewb