Price of printing up three cents

Black-and-white now costs 13, color printing at 18 cents.

By Anton Yu

Prices for photocopying and printing in the University residence halls and campus libraries increased by three cents on August 1 to help the University meet costs.

The price for black-and-white copying or printing on 8.5 by 11–inchpages increased from 10 cents to 13 cents per page, while color copying and printing on pages of the same size increased from 15 cents to 18 cents per page. Prices for scanning and faxes have remained the same at two cents and 25 cents respectively per 8.5 by 11–inch page.

According to David Borycz, the library’s director of budget and facilities, the recent price increases are intended solely to cover the costs of providing copying and printing to students and faculty in the libraries and residence halls.

“Because of decreases in the volume of printing and photocopying, the fees collected haven’t been covering the cost of the system as laid out in our contract,” Borycz said. “The price increase was made to bring revenue back to meeting costs.”

The University has contracted with Canon Unified Printing to provide integrated copying, faxing, printing, and scanning services in the libraries and residence halls.

This is the first change in prices for copying and printing since the University began contracting with Canon four years ago. Under the University’s previous contract with a different vendor, which ended in 2009, the prices were eight cents per 8.5 by 11–inch page for black-and-white copying or printing and 50 cents per page of the same size for color copying and printing.

The University switched from free printing to a pay-for-printing system at the beginning of winter quarter in 2004 following a rise in the volume of student printing.