Printing is outdated and expensive

College campuses are supposed to be full of bright, young minds ready to change the world with facilities and faculty who are ready to help take small steps to make a difference. In this atmosphere, laptop computers and tablets are virtually ubiquitous.

Leveraging the power of the internet, many professors take advantage and use services like D2L to assign new and diverse assignments. Speaking for myself, I haven’t had a course where I don’t have at least some online homework, and I’d say it’s been very beneficial to my very expensive education. So, why is the university still using so much paper?

Recently, it was reported that the school spent almost a quarter of a million dollars on printing supplies last year, not counting bi-annual printer upgrades. Not only is that a lot of money, it requires 6.5 million sheets of paper, which is roughly 325-650 trees.

There was a time that expense could be justified, but those days are long gone. Most students have some personal computing device, and those who don’t have access to the public computers in the Academic Commons, and there are significant benefits to turning things in online.

The South Dakota Board of Regents pays to have the service Turn It In automatically check what’s submitted to a class’s Dropbox for plagiarism, and professors can grade, with notes, online. There’s no question about if the paper was turned in on time because there are records online. For the same reason, the paper won’t be misplaced by any party. There aren’t really any practical benefits to handing in a physical paper, so it’s typically a waste of money.

That’s unfortunate at USD because the budget that funds our paper and ink is the same budget that funds getting new computers and improving wireless connectivity on campus, things that provide tangible benefits to the campus at large.
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Instead, that money goes to buy expensive paper and ink that mostly finds its ultimate fate in a trash can.

Higher education in South Dakota is cheap relative to the rest of the country, but it’s still a major investment regardless of those in-state or out-of-state. That money should be used to benefit students as much as possible. To this end, professors should make an effort to eliminate paper from classes as much as possible because that can help cut costs and promote better school infrastructure.

I’ve focused on the financial side of things thus far, but I’m a tree-hugger and need to mention the environmental side, namely cutting down the trees I like to hug. Money is important, but this could potentially save hundreds of trees every year.

USD and SGA have both established a desire to be more environmentally-friendly. Beyond a local concern, concern should extend to the national level given that the Department of Defense has named climate change the greatest threat to American security, which is kind of their thing.

There are a lot of reasons to want more paperless classes, convenience, economics and environmentalism being some of them. I couldn’t say whether the solution comes from the administration, professors or maybe it’s the students. Whatever it is, everybody at USD needs to all work together to figure out the solution.