To print or not to print—that is the question.

Many students at Butler are facing this issue as the university experiments with the new paper allocation program, PrintSmart, which was unveiled this year.

The Butler Collegian believes this program could be beneficial to the university as a whole.  We are optimistic about giving PrintSmart a try this year.

With the “Butler Goes Green” movement on the rise, we understand and appreciate Butler’s focus on the environment.

Butler is heading in the right direction by adding the PrintSmart program to the campus’s green initiatives.

Most importantly, the program forces us to think about the mark we make on the environment.

With some students printing needlessly large PowerPoint slides and forgetting about half of the papers they print, we understand why Butler wants us to consider our paper usage—just take a look in the recycling bins in campus computer labs.

Though we like the program, we do have a few minor issues with it.

In classes where we are asked to print articles and essays each week, we wonder if  staff are on the same page as the university.

Some professors still do not accept work electronically, leaving us to worry whether classes with large paper loads will use up all of our 1,200 credits and our pocket change.

Though this year is a pilot year and we will not be charged for overuse, it could be an issue in the future.

This does not seem fair to us.

While we are doing our best to change and accommodate this new program, it seems that some faculty members have not done the same.

If they do not change their ways, how can we be asked to change ours?

Not only should the university get everyone onboard, but the reason for the program should be more prominent.

Many students thought the new PrintSmart was put in place in order to save money.

When The Butler Collegian spoke with Project Manager Tyler Johnston, he said that the reason for the program was environmental.  It was also reported that Butler is one of the few schools without a paper credit program.

If one were to click on the link on PrintSmart and go to “my account,” they would find the reason for the program evident.

The account page informs the student how much paper he or she has used.  It shows the environmental impact students have via carbon, trees and energy.

We at The Butler Collegian feel that if we saw that we used a part of a tree every time we printed an article for class or knew how much electricity is equal to the paper we print, we would be more apt to take PrintSmart’s lesson to heart.

When we only see how many credits we use, our brains do not even consider the environment.

If Butler uses this test year to work out the kinks, PrintSmart seems to be an innovative idea, so long as everyone on campus is involved.