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Residential Computing may respond to printing abuse

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
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In an effort to combat abuse of the printing system in dorms, Residential Computing (ResComp) may be moving to revamp the system and crack down on the most serious offenders.

Designed to give students the benefit of the doubt when it comes to canceling print jobs, the printing system in Stanford dorm computer clusters does not charge the usual 10 cents for pages that have already been printed when a job is canceled. This, however, allows students to bypass the charge altogether by terminating print jobs moments before they complete.

(JIN ZHU/Staff Photographer)

After several Residential Computing Consultants (RCCs) reported incidences of abuse, ResComp has identified a number of individuals who routinely cancel print jobs in a way that suggests they are systematically avoiding charges.

In the month of March, one student canceled 52 print jobs and another six students canceled more than twenty print jobs each, according to Surajit Bose, the head of Academic Computing Technology Services.

ResComp can identify users by their SUNet ID.

Some of these students have been reported to their respective residence deans, Bose said. But on behalf of ResComp, he declined to name which dorms are affected and what consequences students face, saying that “at this point, we believe the matter is better handled internally out of respect for the students.”

In order to close the loophole, ResComp has decided to introduce changes to the technical structure of Stanford’s printing system, according to Bose.

ResComp is faced with two options: the system could be configured to charge for each page as it prints or for the entire print job as soon as it is released to the printer. The latter option, while easier to implement technically, would lead to additional overhead costs because ResComp would be required to refund erroneous print jobs.

ResComp has not yet decided on one specific system and is still working on a concrete timetable for implementation.

In the meantime, Bose said, ResComp will continue to report serious offenders to resident fellows and residence deans and is also considering working with Judicial Affairs as it deems abuse of the printing system a breach of the Fundamental Standard.

“All options are on the table,” said Bose, who expressed disappointment at students’ apparent willingness to “steal” from the University. He said he was shocked to see the high numbers of abuse.

“We are not naive about the state of the world, but we have higher expectations of Stanford students,” Bose said.

Rick Yuen, a judicial officer, said ResComp has not referred printing-related cases to Judicial Affairs. He would not say what potential consequences students could face if found responsible for a printing-related Fundamental Standard or Honor Code violation.

“If we are asked for consultation or help[,] we would want to help build integrity on campus,” Yuen wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.

During fall quarter 2008—the most recent quarter for which statistics are available—Judicial Affairs had one case of “misuse of equipment/funds,” a Fundamental Standard violation, among 26 total cases.

The loophole is something of an open secret on campus. One female student, a senior majoring in management science & engineering, said she even got rid of her printer after learning how easy it was to avoid charges. One RCC said that “many RCCs know about it and do it, too.”

They and other students interviewed for this story would not identify themselves because of fear of disciplinary consequences.

Other students said that while they have heard about the loophole, they have no intention of cheating the system.

“It just feels wrong to me to use University resources without paying,” said Alexis Arnold ’11.

Bose also makes the argument that students will do themselves more harm than good if they continue to bypass printing charges. Though the University does not make a profit from printing services, it must generate enough revenue to break even—which is becoming increasingly difficult due to abuse, and which may force ResComp to increase printing costs for all students, according to Bose.

  • Senior

    Are we going to start referring people to take fruit from the dining halls to Judicial Affairs too? Rescomp is becoming the RIAA, sheesh.

  • Brendan

    When profs and TFs require that you print out 20 page packets for seemingly every other section, it’s not difficult to feel as thought the University ought to be doing the printing for free. For those of us low-income students who do not have ipads, netbooks, or even a laptop, printing expenses can add up quickly. Many colleges offer students 1000 sheets/quarter free or some other arbitrary number. Considering our tuition+room/board is one of the highest in the country over $50k you’d think the least they could do is give every student a set amount of sheets or change the policy so that TFs and Profs are responsible for providing handouts and printing subsidies.

  • Alum

    Man, I wish I’d known about this loophole back when I was a student…

    Anyway, I agree with Brendan. The University should cover a certain amount of pages per quarter.

  • Senior

    I am one of those who have used this “technique” before and I have several thoughts on this.

    - There’s a reason that the Honor Code states that the professors should not create an environment that would be conducive to violation of the Honor Code. Same thing applies here. ResComp has learned a long time ago that this loophole exists. Yet it did not do anything about it–not even put warnings on the printing page or send an email to people who has been canceling many jobs.

    - It is questionable that the current system is designed to give students the benefits of doubt. A person will cancel a print job for two main reasons: (1) that he/she realized after printing several pages that something is wrong (double-sided, scaling, etc.) or (2) that the printer prints out garbage. The first case can be fixed just by having the printer charges whatever has already been printed out and clicking cancel would stop any further printing. The student should be charged for what was printed. In the second case, I doubt that the student will even know that the printout is garbage until after the print job was done (and the student was charged). Imagine you’re printing a 1-page document. There’s just not enough time for you to check if the printout is okay then decide to click cancel or not.

    - And yes, I agree with Brendan.

  • Hi

    I agree with Brendan. Or at least bring down the cost of printing a page. 10 cents? How is that figure calculated because that is not the cost printing a 1 page document on a laser printer. Where does the profit for that 10 cents go to?

  • junior

    Sounds really serious. What kinda punishments will those serious offenders face?? Are they gonna be kicked out? I am worried about my friend.

  • Senior #1

    Apparently the profit pays for employees like Bose, so they can sit around and yell at people instead of improving the system.

  • Cluster user

    Believe it or not, 10 cents is a steal. If you consider the fixed amount you pay for your own printer and the cost of cartridges, then the amount you pay per page on your own tends to be higher, but of course most people don’t realize it and choose to complain anyway.

  • Ummmm

    “It just feels wrong to me to use University resources without paying.”

    Well, judging by tuition costs, I certainly think we’re paying for plenty of other university resources…I agree with Brendan, at least a certain number of pages should be included in said “resources.”

  • Hi

    Of course it should be cheaper than owning a INKJET printer. I never said it wasn’t. When printing a text document in black ink costs 1 cent to the company (look up printing costs for the model laser printers we have) and we get charged 10 cents for it, I am curious to see where it goes and how they chose 10 cents.

    But when you can buy a laser printer for < $150 it'll pay for itself after a year or two.

  • Sabers

    It’s dumb that people like Bose feel the need to shout rather than actually change the system. Everyone misuses that system! Bose/Rescomp if you don’t like it, do something about it!

  • Reader

    I think everyone knows or have heard of people who do this. A couple people advertised it in our class when our teacher asked us if anyone knew any shortcuts to printing out a lot of copies.

  • Tyler

    “We are not naive about the state of the world, but we have higher expectations of Stanford students”

    I simply have a higher expectation of Stanford’s printing policy. It’s baffling to me that Stanford, which ranks first in private donations, finds the need to “break even” with printing costs. Either allocate a certain number of pages per quarter or at the very least subsidize the cost to match Harvard’s ($.05).

  • Brendan Weinstein

    Wow! ‘Glad to see the that I am not the only one who feels cheated. Good points Tyler and Hi.

  • Nunya

    “We are not naive about the state of the world, but we have higher expectations of Stanford students”

    Of, come on. Stanford students are people too, even if they are slightly more “educated” than the general population. Those extra years of education don’t make us any better or worse morally than the next person. Just because whoever “we” is has high expectations of us doesn’t mean that they will be fulfilled. Gimme a break.

    This does sounds pretty serious… not sure what they’ll do to the students though because I feel like so many people do this. Or, this might just be a ploy to deter people from doing it…

  • voice of reason

    My only question is why the initial reaction to the realization that you can print without paying is that this is clearly the correct action. Does anyone consider that this is stealing and that maybe stealing is bad? We have laws as human beings and they are more than social contract. Just because you can do something to your own perceived benefit does not mean this is obviously the thing to do. It disappoints me as a Stanford student to see so many people succumb to such a thing especially when our goals as a University are so ideologically lofty. We have to ask ourselves whether the ideals we hold are in name only and if we have the strength to stand by them.

  • Brittany

    the Man gets over on us again

  • Elmer Fudd

    I always just figured that I’d reimburse Stanford later in my life, when I became rich and famous.

  • Senior

    I just figured I was already reimbursing them with our ridiculous tuition minus paltry financial aid ($0 even though my family makes 70k. Yay family farm.)

  • Reader

    Just because Stanford charges us (students) a lot of money for tuition doesn’t mean that the money gets distributed evenly among all deptartments (Rescomp, etc.). I work for another overlooked department and trust me, they are cutting costs like crazy. I’m just trying to get the whole perspective out there, since I hate that we have to pay for printing as well. There’s an email being spread out through the lists and here it is for those of you who haven’t seen it:

    The Facts:

    1) This printing loophole is indeed a Fundamental Standard violation.

    2) Rescomp can indeed identify students who make use of this loophole.

    3) Rescomp has always and continues to hold the right to bring forth charges to Judicial Affairs, but has not and does not currently plan to press charges against any students.

    4) If students just stop now, they’re basically fine.

    5) Really. Stop doing it.

    ResComp explains:

    1. We make no profits from printing. It made me smile to read the
    comment on the Daily’s website that said I was probably paid from the
    profit. Um, what profit? What we take in on revenue, we spend on
    printers, consumables (paper, toner), and the cost of developing the
    print accounting software. Most of the time, we don’t break even.

    The more revenue we lose to theft, the farther away we get from breaking
    even, and the less our chances of reducing end-user costs or offering
    enhanced services. The fact we don’t break even is one reason we haven’t
    implemented any “free” printing quota or provided any discounts for
    duplex printing, for example. So those who steal from the system are
    actually stealing from their fellow students, since it drives costs up
    for everybody. And it means that the honest ones who do pay for printing
    end up subsidizing the ones who cheat.

    2. We do keep meticulous records/logs of who printed, when, whether the
    job was completed, how many pages, etc. We have to. There’s money
    involved, and good accounting demands that we keep track of this stuff.
    It’s exactly like when you buy something using a credit or debit card:
    there’s always a record of that transaction. Even if you cancel a credit
    or debit card transaction, there’s always a record of the cancellation.
    Those records are what make credit or debit plans work.

    The Stanford card plan was a debit plan until this year, now it’s a
    credit plan, but either way, we have had to track and log all
    transactions on it. That’s how debit and credit plans work. So yeah, we
    absolutely know your residents’ printing habits and can track down every
    single completed or cancelled job by SUNet ID. Finding habitual
    cancelers is not hard at all. And it’s not because we’re snoops, it’s
    how the system works.

    3. There is no excuse for bypassing the print accounting system. Trust
    me, we’ve heard them all:
    • Don’t like having to pay to print stuff that’s in CourseWork? It’s
    probably cheaper than having to buy a course reader. To print a course
    reader, profs have to pay for copyright permissions, which gets expensive.
    • Think students should have a “free” quota of a certain number of pages
    per quarter or year? Get the ASSU to approach us and ask us for it, and
    stop driving up our costs to the point where we can’t provide it.
    • Think we’re the man, and sticking it to the man is fine on general
    principle? You’re actually stealing from your fellow students.
    • Think ResComp makes it too easy to bypass the system, so the abuse is
    our fault? We should all know what to think of abusers who claim the
    victim was clearly asking for it.
    • Think nobody gets hurt by this petty pilfering? Well, let’s say each
    printer loses $5 per week in spuriously canceled jobs (and that’s a very
    conservative estimate). $5 x 80 printers x approx 40 weeks that school
    is in session: $16,000.

  • alumni

    i also found it ridiculous that pricing incentives were not more properly aligned to encourage less printing, ie. charging less to print double-sided or to print multiple pages per page.

    also, the creative writing department needs to rethink its workshop requirements of bringing in 16-20 copies of 15-page stories to class when it’s much faster, lighter, and eco-friendly to submit stories/comments electronically.