A new printing credit policy that will change the way students are allocated printing credits will be implemented at Iowa State in the fall. 

Students currently have a set limit of printing credits depending on what college they belong to. For example, students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have 500 printing credits, while students in the College of Design have 1,000 printing credits.

The new policy will “standardize the cost of black and white printing for all students in all departments in the colleges,” said Jim Kurtenbach, interim vice president and chief information officer in information technology services.

Kurtenbach has been working with Provost Jonathan Wickert and Student Government during the past year to put the policy into place.

The standardized printing cost will be five cents per page anywhere on campus, and it will not add any additional cost to a student’s university bill.

“All [the policy] does is revise what used to be called the printing credits, so departments in colleges used to set their own printing credit quota, and what this does is standardize the cost of printing,” Kurtenbach said, adding that it is quite possible that the term printing credits will go away altogether.

Printing credits was one of Student Government President Cole Staudt’s main points when running for presidency.

“I’m in the [College of Liberal Arts and Sciences], and there’s been times in my six semesters now that I get halfway through the semester and run out of printing credits because I’m expected to print a lab report or some other materials on a weekly basis and I just don’t have enough printing credits to get through the semester,” Staudt said. “I think it’s pretty dumb, to be honest, that we aren’t giving students enough printing credits to make it through the semester.”

Members of Student Government also took into consideration what the student body said about printing credits.

“It’s a great example of Student Government identifying an issue that is of concern to students and then bringing it up and working with university administration to put in place a better policy,” Wickert said.

Students returning in the fall can expect an equal printing credit cost all across campus.