Students, faculty seek increased printing access on campus

      ST. BONAVENTURE (Feb. 21)—As Francis Matuszak sat in his Catholic and Franciscan Heritage class in a second-floor classroom in Plassmann Hall at St. Bonaventure University, his foot tapped the floor repeatedly. He glanced at his watch. Five minutes remained in class. Soon enough, the professor stopped discussing the life of St. Francis of Assisi and dismissed the class.
      Matuszak rushed down the hall to Room 205, the new document printing room, and revised a paper for his Composition and Critical Thinking class. He logged in, typed and clicked print. After the printer burped up his pages, he stapled them together and dashed to class on the third-floor with two minutes to spare.

      Technology Services officials sent out a campus-wide e-mail informing students they had installed a printer and scanner in Room 205, converting the room from a modern language lab to a general-purpose lab with 15 computers.
      “With the new printer at its convenient location, I don’t have to waste time going out of the building to the library between classes,” said Matuszak, a biology major. “I think having the computer lab with the printer in Plassmann Hall is a great idea.”
      Each semester, Michael Hoffman, executive director for information technology, meets with Student Government Association members to discuss what Technology Services could do to benefit students on campus, said Michelle McKernan, the association’s president.
      “He always wants to come talk to us and is willing to do anything for students,” said McKernan.
Hoffman met with association members last fall to discuss installing a computer and scanner in Plassmann Hall.
      Last fall, students Mike Hughes, Nicole Marinaccio and Jeffrey Hanrahan surveyed 86 students for their psychology class asking which building on campus most needed a printer. An overwhelming 80 percent of students replied “somewhere in Plassmann Hall.”
      Hughes, Marinaccio and Hanrahan presented the survey’s findings to Hoffman. He decided Room 205 would be the best location for a printer.
      Plassmann 205 previously served as a modern language laboratory for language classes and for students who wished to use the facility when not in use by a class, Hoffman said. The lab originally had 20 computers. It reduced by 5 after student’s underuse of the lab, Hoffman said. The room did not contain a printer.
      Wolfgang Natter, dean of the school of arts and sciences, agreed it made sense to open the lab for more general use.
      Natter went to Philip Winger, associate vice president for facilities, who hired Duggan and Duggan General Contractors Inc. to construct a wall dividing the lab.
      “One half is becoming a more general-purpose computer lab and the other is planned for a space for the pre-law program,” Winger said.
      Construction lasted less than a week and cost “a couple thousand dollars,” Winger said.
      Hoffman said Technology Services had plenty of funding for the new printer.
      “From the amount of money students have been paying to increase their print allotments if they want extra pages, we were able to take that money and buy the printer,” said Hoffman.
      A pack of 100 pages costs a student $5.
      Both students and teachers like the new printing lab.
      “The printing lab is a great idea. It’s good for students who don’t have computers or printers,” said Spanish professor Sister Elise Mora. “It’s convenient and allows for them to not have to carry their computers around.”
      Hoffman said the basement annex of Plassmann Hall houses the only other printer in the building, but it is often in use for classroom activity through the school of education.
      “Although the printing lab on second Plassmann isn’t as big as the one downstairs, it serves as a quiet room,” said English major Adam McDermott. “It’s more convenient than going all the way down there just to find out a class is using it.”
      To tell how often students use the lab, Technology Services uses software to track how often a student prints and from which location.
      “The printer may need to go somewhere else if it’s not getting used much1. It’s too early to tell, but it seems to be a great success,” said Hoffman.
      Hughes, a junior psychology major, entered into the second-floor printing lab for the first time a week after it opened and sat down at the only computer available. He looked around and smiled to himself as he heard the printer spitting out someone’s assignment. He smiled because he knew he had something to do with the way the room turned out.
      “Printing is a lot more convenient now,” Hughes said. “My hope is that students take advantage of it.”