Think Before You Print
Information about printing at Southeastern Louisiana University:
Many of the student computer labs on campus are supported through the Student Technology Fee and approximately $100,000 of the funds annually pay for printing in the labs. Unfortunately, an estimated 40 percent of all printing in the labs is considered waste due to lack of awareness of the size of documents or through duplicate printing. The dollars spent on wasted printing means fewer funds that are available for new and updated equipment.
Southeastern's Student Technology Fee provides computer labs on and off campus for actively enrolled students. These computer labs have a print-management software called GO PRINT installed that allows each student to manage the number of prints he or she uses each semester. The goal of this system is to fairly distribute an adequate amount of prints to each student (75 pages per academic hour) and decrease the amount of printing waste. Significantly reducing printing waste will enable the university to spend student technology dollars more efficiently.
When a student enters a student technology fee computer lab, the student must log into a computer using his or her "W" number and password. To print a document they must select "print" to open the print dialog box, select the details of the print job and then click on "ok" to send the print job. This print job will be sent to the print management system and held there until the student has a chance to review the print job and determine if the student wants to send the job to the printer or delete the job for reasons such as the number of pages waiting to be printed is higher than the student thought.
In order to release a print job once it has been reviewed, a print release system icon is located in two places, on the desktop and in the lower, right hand corner in the task bar. To start the print release process, the student clicks on this icon. Once the student clicks on this icon the student will be brought to the "GoPrint" login page. It will prompt the student to enter his or her account information (W# and password). Once logged in, the student will see his or her print jobs (a current list of what the student sent to the printer); the student's account summary (which includes the account balance for that semester); and a transaction summary (which calculates the total number of pages for the print jobs that are about to released). The student must first select a document by checking the box next to the print job. This is when the number of pages will be calculated in the transaction summary. If the student chooses to "Pay and Print" the print job will be released from the print management system and sent to the printer. A reduction of 1 page for each black and white sheet printed and a reduction of 20 pages for each color sheet printed will be reflected in the balance. If the job is "cancelled", no prints will be deducted from the account.
The 5 steps in the Print Process are:
1. Log into the computer using W# and password.
2. Choose a document to be printed, select print and the print dialog box appears. After you determine the details of your print job and click "OK" the print job will be held by the print management system until you authorize it for release to the printer.
3. To print it, return to the desktop and click on the print icon 
and log into the GoPrint software using your W# and password.
4. Once logged in, you will see the following dialog box, notice your list of Print Jobs (a current list of what you may want to print); your Account Summary (which includes your account balance for that semester); and your Transaction Summary (which calculates the total number of pages for the print job you select to print).
5. If you determine you want to delete a print job or see that there are more pages than you want to print, check the box next to the print job and select the "Cancel jobs" button. Return to your document and determine what you need to print. If you want to print a job, check the box next to the print job and then the Transaction Summary will calculate the total number of pages to be printed. Once you select "Pay and Print" your print job will be released to the printer and your balance will decline to reflect the prints.
If you click on the My Account tab at the top, you will see the following:
This will give you an overview of your account. You will see your print history as well as all account balances.
We really hope this will give students the opportunity to help us utilize the Student Technology Fee dollars to improve student technology at Southeastern instead of watching it be wasted when thrown away in the overflowing trashcans. For answers to questions about the print system procedures contact the lab attendant in each Student Technology Fee computer lab.
If you need extra prints, click here for information.
For Guest/Alumni printing information, click here.
Tips for Reducing Waste
Southeastern recommends that students review the following criteria before printing in order to maximize printing efficiency (to help you save prints) and reduce paper waste:
Consider using online resources when available, or print only what needs to be printed.
- If the document is excessively large, consider if it can be reduced.
- Attempt to eliminate white space.
- Change font size to fit more material on a page.
- Change margins in order to fit more on a page.
- Use single spacing when possible.
- Use print preview before sending pages to printer.
- If a PowerPoint document, print multiple slides per page (if you need assistance with this, call a lab attendant).
Other things to Consider:
- If you send a black and white document to a color printer your account will be reduced by 20 pages for the print.
- Can the document be printed in Black and White, instead of color?
- Is your print a final copy?
*For assistance with any of these tips, please ask a lab attendant.