Saturday will mark the beginning of the first reading period under the new student printing plan on campus.
As students make their way to public printers to retrieve copies of papers, problem sets and final projects, many are checking their printing allocations funds and considering whether or not they will have enough to carry them through finals.
Starting this academic year, students were each given 750 pages of free double-sided black-and-white print jobs per semester, and as recent data show, this new plan has worked for 96 percent of students.
According to Deputy Chief Information Officer Rebecca Sandlin, only 4 percent of the student body, or 68 people, have gone over their printing allotment.
While a couple of students have exceeded the page limit by almost 200 percent, most students did not come close to that number.
As of Thursday, 6 percent of students had $10 or less, left and could possibly go over the limit during reading period and finals week if their classes require a lot of printing, said Sandlin.
Although the data is not complete because the semester is not quite over yet, it shows a general trend in printing.
"Sixty-six percent of the students still have more than half of their allotment," said Sandlin.
Sixty-six percent of the student body is equivalent to 1,115 students.
Although the numbers will definitely fluctuate over the course of reading period and exams, the fact that the new system has satisfied 96 percent of students shows that many have adjusted.
Said Sandlin, "Most students seem to be doing double-sided...most do care about saving natural resources."
Dana Hopkins '14 is one of these students. Enrolled in economics, Spanish, English and film studies classes, she said that she did have to print articles, but that using double-sided printing and printing two pages per sheet has left her with almost $25 for the end of the semester.
When first presenting the printing plan, the Bowdoin Printing Group (BPG), composed of representatives from various administrative branches on campus (including finance, information technology, and the library), had a goal of meeting at least 82 percent of student need.
The current figure of 96 percent far exceeds that initial goal.
"We don't want people to be paying their own money for things they are doing for the College," said Sandlin.
Sandlin said BPG is closely following the Class of 2014's usage to see if there are any differences between their printing volume and that of previous years.
Last year, the College printed 1,604,545 pages, and BPG hopes to decrease that volume by 20 percent.
Of the 68 students who have gone over their allotment, only eight of them are from the Class of 2014, as of Thursday.
Sixty-six percent of students have approximately half of their printing funding left.
Many students who are well under the printing limit said they were surprised by how much money they have not used.
"I still have so much money left," said Lianna Bessette '13, "I thought I'd run out."
"I thought it was going to be a lot worse...one of my classes doesn't even have a textbook," said Lauren Day-Smith '13.
Smith said that while she has not exceeded the printing allotment, some of her friends are "outraged" about having surpassed the 750 double-sided page limit.
Hopkins said, "I don't really know how you could run out."
Any printing funds left over from the fall semester will carry over into the spring semester, said Sandlin.
However, funds will not carry over from the spring to the following fall due to budgeting rules.
According to Sandlin, the BPG may conduct a survey of students who exceeded the printing limit to find out how they spent their funds.
She also said that this past semester has involved educating students about how to efficiently allocate their printing.
For example, Sandlin said that many students had learned that there are means apart from their personal printing allotment to print for students organizations, student-faculty research, and on-campus jobs.
Final data for the fall 2010 semester will be compiled and analyzed over Winter Break.