Last year, 9.5 million pages were printed on campus, according to a survey run by the Informations Technology Services at Binghamton University.

PRINTING TRENDS

According to James Wolf, director of academic computing services, estimates of computer printing this year, which are updated weekly, are at about eight million pages.

One of the reasons for the decrease in pages, according to Wolf, was the introduction of duplex printing in fall of 2008. Two such printers are located in the Glenn G. Bartle Library, one in the Science Library, one in Academic Building A and one in the University Downtown Center.

“Duplex printing was introduced this fall because people wanted it,” he said. “We charge 3 cents a side for duplex printing, while we charge 5 cents a side for simplex [one-sided] printing.”

“It actually worked better than we feared it might,” Wolf added.

According to weekly charts on Wolf‘s site, most duplex printing occurs in the University Downtown Center.

“Forty-six percent of printing is done by undergraduates, and two-thirds of total printing is done by students,” he said.

One reason why undergraduate students print so much, according to Wolf, is that departments tell faculty to not hand out paper copies of assignments. As a result, students are forced to print them out themselves.

BLACKBOARD AND INTERNET

Printing is not the only service in the ITS’s jurisdiction, however. Wolf is also in charge of running Blackboard and campus Wi-Fi.

“We have a fail over strategy,” he said. “If the server went down, it would take four hours for it to boot up on an alternative system.”

Blackboard will be down this Friday, April 3 for scheduled maintenance.

The Wi-Fi system comes with its own concerns, as well.

“We worry about the sizing of servers,” Wolf said. “We have three application servers and database servers for Blackboard. We have only had problems with network capacity. We have a burst-able bandwidth.”

As a result, there are bandwidth limits on campus. If you transfer more than two gigabytes a day from a residence hall, for example, ITS will reduce bandwidth availability.

REGISTRATION

Perhaps the biggest improvement in ITS over the past 20 years that Wolf has been with the department is the revamping of the class registration system. BU Brain was launched the fall 2008 semester and was an attempt to alleviate some of the problems associated with the BUSI system.

“The system has been working a lot better since last year,” Wolf said. “BU Brain is better than the last system. There used to be the problem where it logged you off after 15 minutes of inactivity. We don’t have that problem with BU Brain.”

Atul Sharma, a sophomore computer science major and a Pods consultant at the Glenn G. Bartle Library, was a consultant during the fall registration process. He claimed the library was “quite crowded, but it went pretty well.”

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

The ITS department also provides students with computer applications like pro-engineer and mathematica.

Jake Monnet, a senior mechanical engineering major, said he enjoys these services but had a few complaints.

“I wish there were more computers and printers during peak hours,” he said. “In between classes, I feel like its harder to get a computer.”

The University has responded to this situation by gradually increasing the number of computers and the diversity of computers in the Pods. According to Wolf, 30 percent of the computers on campus are now Macintoshes, partially because incoming freshmen use them.

“We need to be putting more support into Macs,” he said.

Sharma said most of the problems in the library Pods stem from the students.

“Most problems are students’ problems,” she said. “For example, people don’t know how to use scanners. I have to show them how even though there is a big pamphlet on the scanners explaining how to use them. Many of them just don’t read them.”

Despite the increased number of Macs the University has been purchasing, there are still problems, Sharma said.

“Macs are having more problems because not many people are used to them,” he said.

Wolf’s ITS survey has been polling students for four generations through a service named “Survey Monkey.”

“We are constrained financially,” he said. “But there’s always room for improvement. You want to make sure that folks use the new technology for scholarly stuff rather than recreational stuff.”

A new technology, for example, is iTuneU. It allows students to listen to recordings of lectures.

The weekly updated survey can be found on Wolf’s site, bingweb.binghamton.edu/~jwolf.