New printing system for students available on campus

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Auburn University's Office of Information Technology has partnered with Ricoh printing company to bring students two new services this semester: PrePay Printing and Kiosk Printing.

"We had requests from students to have color and duplex printing available at more than one printer on campus. So with this new system we found a manageable way to do this across campus," said Seth Humphrey, manager of web and mobile development for the Office of Information Technology.

PrePay Printing allows students to set up a prepaid account online by logging in with their username and password.  After the account is set up, students can print by emailing documents to emailtoprint@auburn.edu, print directly from an on-campus lab computer or set up a printer queue on their personal Windows or Mac computers.

Kiosk Printing is a separate process and is paid with credit and debit cards. To print from these stations, students will have the option to email documents to print@printme.com, or use the mobile app, USB drives and cloud services.

The two systems have separate printing queues. Therefore, students who email their documents to either the PrePay or Kiosk queues have 24 hours to visit an appropriate printer to release their print jobs.

For a list of PrePay and Kiosk locations, as well as instructions for installing the printer queue, visit the TigerPrint support webpage.

The new system also includes price changes. Black-and-white copies are 10 cents per sheet or 18 cents for double-sided printing; color printing is 50 cents per sheet or 90 cents for double-sided printing; and scanning is free.

Ellyn Hix, director of user services for the Office of Information Technology, said the office expects a slight learning curve with the new systems.

"One thing we want to stress to our students is that if you have any color at all in your document, you'll be charged for a color document," Hix said, in reference to emailing a document to the printers.

Students using the PrePay printer queues from an on-campus computer or their personal computer should double-check the printer settings to use black-and-white by default to avoid paying charges for color printing.

Neither system will be billed to a student's eBill, allowing fewer holds on accounts due to printing charges. "Funds for the prepaid system, as well as charges at kiosk printers, are all run through Ricoh alone," Humphrey said. "This way, the printing charges are no longer associated with the university and will not prevent a student registering for classes due to a hold on their account."

Hix said the Office of Information Technology welcomes feedback from students.  "We want to work with everyone to make the new system easy," Hix said.

For a step-by-step process on each printing system, visit the TigerPrint webpage. To provide feedback, email tigerprint@auburn.edu. For help from a Ricoh representative, email www.ricohhelp@auburn.edu.

Auburn University is a nationally ranked land grant institution recognized for its commitment to world-class scholarship, interdisciplinary research with an elite, top-tier Carnegie R1 classification, life-changing outreach with Carnegie’s Community Engagement designation and an undergraduate education experience second to none. Auburn is home to more than 30,000 students, and its faculty and research partners collaborate to develop and deliver meaningful scholarship, science and technology-based advancements that meet pressing regional, national and global needs. Auburn’s commitment to active student engagement, professional success and public/private partnership drives a growing reputation for outreach and extension that delivers broad economic, health and societal impact.