To: President of City College
From: Muhtasim Mushfiq, Student
Subject: Printer Shortage at the Library of the NAC
Date: 7 October 2019
The purpose of this memo is to present the constant issue with the minimal quantity of printers our students have access to in the North Academic Center’s (NAC) library.
Summary
The NAC’s library has only 5 floors. In the library, there are only 7 printers on the first floor and only 2 printers on the second floor. On the floors above, there are no printers available. All students who have professors that demand hard-copy assignments are required to print out the paper and hand them in by the beginning of class. During any time of day, the printers are always swarmed with students waiting in line to print their work. The number of printers do not satisfy the number of students. I would like to discuss a solution to increase the efficiency of printing, decrease the number of students huddling around a single printer or floor in the library, and decrease the chance of a potential safety hazard.
Discussion
When students are in need of a quiet place to study or do homework on campus they rely on the library to accomplish their tasks. After they have completed their papers and are required to print it out, they will have to wait for the immense line of students trying to print. According to the official website of City College of New York, all students attending the college are allotted 1,000 print credits. Each page is 2 print credits and each colored page is 4 print credits. However, these free 1,000 print credits are only offered at the Tech Center of the NAC. If students were to go to another building for printing, it would be out of their own pocket. Students are already paying enough for tuition, printing should not be included as well. Since students are given these credits, it is easier to print at the library without worrying about the number of pages than buying paper for their home printers. This then leads to an increase of students that will be on the first floor of the library. This in result starts becoming a safety hazard. If there were any emergencies, such as a fire, it would be difficult for the students in the library to evacuate considering how over-crowded the first floor is.
Students at CCNY, who have used the libraries, have had the first-hand experience of what it feels like having to wait a long time for printing out their work. They are constantly complaining about the ridiculous wait time when it comes to printing. Unlike CCNY, Queens College has 4 floors but each floor has a handful amount of printers. This increases efficiency, a fast-going process, and people will be in and out without producing a crowd around the printers. Also, it decreases the risk of students being in harm if there was an emergency to occur that required evacuation. After asking 10 students that attend Queens College and spend a fair amount of time at the library, they have stated that their libraries meet their needs and has never had an issue with the number of printers. Since Queens College also gives its students 1,000 print credits these students stated that they are more likely to print out their papers in the library than at home and the waiting time for printing would never be an issue.
Recommendation
I would like to recommend adding more printers across the many floors of the NAC’s library. To start off, we can cut down on the number of computers on the first floor and increase the number of printers in replace of those computers. Some computers are incapable of functioning, so they are just taking up space and money for where a printer could be. The prices of the iMac computers that are installed in the NAC’s library range between $1,099 and $2,299. With the extra money, we save from buying more computers we could purchase more printers. We should increase the number of printers on the first floor to 9 printers. Going above 10 printers on a single floor would not be the best use of the money we get from the computers we are not purchasing. More printers should be installed on the floors above. Starting from the third floor to the fifth floor, there is a central sitting area with many outlets. A minimum number of 2 printers on the third and fifth floor should be installed in the central sitting area which would be sufficient to reduce the number of people on the same floor and minimize time consumption on waiting in line for printing. With this system, our students will finally have their printing needs met. In addition, it will reduce the risk of a safety hazard.
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