A concern among many college students is the cost for printing on campus. Some at WSU do not realize they have $7.50 in their account set aside for printing each semester.

A student technology fee was implemented last year into students’ tuitions and $7.50 of that is for the cost of printing.

Dylan Heyne, the ASWSU director of university affairs, said the student technology fee is something that many universities have, helping with things like improving Wi-Fi on campus and, in this case, the cost of printing.

Heyne said that a very common complaint from students he heard during the #DearWSU social media campaign was the price of printing on campus.

He said subsidizing part of the technology fee for printing was the best solution at the time, but the ultimate goal is to eventually have completely free printing for students.

ASWSU and the administration are working on smoothing things out, but will need some time.

“We’re asking to give it some time because we’re still trying to figure out the kinks,” Heyne said.

The student tech fee is $20, with roughly one-third of that available on students’ Cougar Cards to be used to print.

Craig Howard, director of Administrative Services and Information Systems for the university, said the student printing plan is automatically put on students’ accounts when they have seven credit hours or higher, and is refunded if the student falls below seven credit hours.

Howard said students can also use the app GET Mobile to manage their account.

“We helped make it work for the students,” Howard said.

The student technology fee is just for undergraduates.

Edward Sala, the communications assistant director and marketing consultant for the university, said there is discussion on whether to expand printing to residence halls.

More education about the printing plan started about two years ago during ALIVE sessions, where they had not done as much before, Sala said.

Sala acknowledged that many students were not aware of the printing plan, but Coug Prints and ASWSU were going to start doing outreach to let students know what is available.

Sala said a very overlooked part of the printing plan was the mobile aspect; students can email the work they wanted printed from their student email to [email protected], and it would be available on any Coug Print station on campus for 12 hours.

“So far the program is doing very well,” Sala said.