WU discontinues free printing for all Willamette colleges, charging for printing indefinitely under new policy
Note: Alexander Berry is a senator on ASWU
Willamette University announced a change to the school’s printing policies ahead of the fall semester, implementing a paid printing policy for Willamette College, School of Computing & Information Sciences, School of Law and Atkinson Graduate School of Management students.
To combat the initial adjustment, students are provided with a $10.00 printing credit at the start of each semester which is equivalent to 125 black-and-white pages. The provided credit to students does not roll over between semesters.
This decision was explained through the statement, “To support more sustainable printing practices and align student printing policies across campuses.” The statement continued, “To put our current campus usage into perspective: last spring alone, 421,254 sheets of letter-sized paper were printed. Even though we use recycled paper, that volume still represents roughly 42 trees worth of prints.”
Additionally, WITS in the announcement explained the provided credit, “This credit will fully cover the printing needs for a little more than half of the students on the Salem campus.” Prior to discussion with The Collegian, requests had been forwarded to Associate Director of User Services Ryan Bundy through the WITS Service Request Portal. However, as of Sept. 18, according to an automated email from Bundy’s email address, he no longer works at Willamette.
After the provided $10.00 credit, students will be charged $0.08 per page or $0.07 for duplex. All users on campus network services can use PaperCut on their personal devices to utilize printing. PaperCut will automatically calculate the printing cost for each printing session. If the $10.00 printing credit is exceeded the individualized PaperCut account will begin to accrue printing charges. More details can be found at “WITS: Get Help/ Printing at Willamette.”
If printing errors occur, the refund process, explained by Vice President for Technology and Chief Information Officer Jeremy Lovato, will be on the basis of student self-reporting which will operate on an honor system. “Students can log into PaperCut, locate the affected job under Recent Print Jobs and provide a brief explanation of what occurred,” he said.
When an unusually high number of requests occur from an account, a WITS team member may reach out to identify recurring printing issues, Lovato added.
ASWU President Katelyn Beissel Rosales (’28), discussed internal conversations she has had with university administrators to gain additional insight into how this change occurred. “This [decision] was made as a result of different offices communicating… This was the Provost’s office, this was WITS.”
Lovato further elaborated on the rationale behind the changes. “Printing has not been managed the same across Willamette’s schools. Rather than maintain different systems and structures, a group including the Provost Office, WITS, reviewed campus printing usage and agreed to roll out a single model that applies the same allocation and rates to every student,” Lovato explained in an email.
“This is not intended to generate a profit for WITS. The goal is to better align printing costs with actual usage and create a more consistent approach to how those costs are managed across the university,” he emailed.
Before this alignment, the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) was the only Willamette school operating under a paid printing model, establishing its system prior to the 2021 merger. Teresa Christiansen, the director of academic technology and chair of photography at PNCA discussed where the money students spend on printing would go and said, “The money students spend on printing: we put it straight back into the budget that’s used to purchase the toners, paper and pay for the printers.”
All Willamette schools are now operating under a charged printing format. Christiansen explained that conversations around a charged printing system began in 2025. “When Provost Henderson came in June 2025, we started a conversation that this was a normal practice at many other universities and she did pose a question of… what is our printing cost? How much waste are we having?”
Lovato explained that the $10.00 credit would not roll over as “Administratively it would be difficult.” The data set used to determine the credit was taken from PNCA’s system based on printing data from the 2025-26 academic year provided through PaperCut.
“As a PPLE and Sociology major myself, I can tell you I print a lot,” Rosales said. “My professors have been really accommodating and very helpful in making sure that everyone has equitable access and that students are not printing as much as they need to.”
She added that many students print out packets for homework and readings for courses, “I believe that there’s [disparities] and different levels of printing different departments are using.”
Lovato addressed department paper usage stating, “We [WITS team] recognize that printing needs can vary significantly by course and academic program… Students who anticipate significant printing needs for a particular course are encouraged to review their syllabus early and work with their faculty member regarding expectations for printed versus digital materials.”
Rosales’s consideration of department printing usage resulted in her taking on an “experiment,” as she described. “As a study, I printed out all of my readings just for [one] class for one test… My balance is at $2.50 meaning I have already blown through my $10.00 and owe my student account $2.50.”
Willamette University has not definitively ruled out a return to a free printing system. “That [reverting to a free system] has not been discussed at the moment.” said Tiara Johnson, the director of IT projects and engagement.
“What we can do is reform and adjust this process. I would encourage students, if you have disposable income, to test it out and print as you would normally,” Rosales said. “They will assess this [printing data] at the end of the semester. They will look over how many students went over the printing budget.”
The printing announcement concluded, “By introducing this new model, we hope to encourage more mindful printing habits and significantly reduce our collective environmental footprint.”
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