Printing has been nothing short of an inconvenience for Otterbein students this semester.
Two of the three first-floor printers in the library were out of order for the first half of the semester. This often caused a line of students waiting for papers from the only working printer.
The printers were under repair for over a month due to back-ordered maintenance kits. Earlier in the semester, the library posted locations of other working printers in the library and around campus in an attempt to temporarily solve the issue.
ITS consultant Sonny Gulati responded to the problem through an email. "Since last week, everything is working fine," he wrote. "We should be in good shape for finals week and other student needs."
However, this doesn't account for all printers. Printers in the Art and Communication building are still not functional, and students are unable to log in to the computers to print from the wired connection.
The library printers going out of order during finals week could cause problems for students needing to turn in their final assignments for the semester.
Sophomore Madison Borowicz said she has some concerns about the campus printers with finals coming up.
"Yeah, it could definitely be a problem," she said. "Printers are basically essential to college students. If I want to work on, like, a study guide, I don't know if that's even a possibility."
In the case of an urgent need, Otterbein would bring in printers from somewhere else or purchase them using emergency funds, according to Jeff Nutter, the vice president of Business Affairs.
Nutter said that Otterbein has previously looked at adding automation to printers. This would notify them of a problem, but the associated costs have deterred them from adding the functionality.
ITS is usually dependent on the departments to notify them of any repairs needed. Gulati voiced that they are changing this process for the spring semester and will begin conducting routine inspections around campus.
The ITS department is now "expanding to inspect everything, including computers and printers," according to Gulati. The inspections will take place before and after every semester, and a couple of weeks before finals.
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