PawPrints allowance differs between students

Photo credit: Dayday Wynn

By Christina Soto | Reporter

All Baylor students are allotted a certain amount of money towardPawPrints, Baylor’s printing system. However, the amount of money allocated differs between majors.

According to the Baylor PawPrints website, printing costs 7 cents per page for black and white and 28 cents per page for color. Every semester, undergraduate students’ allowance for PawPrints are 400 single-sided pages, and graduate students are given 600 pages. In total allocating $28 for most undergraduate students.

“We look at historical student printing and see how much they have printed in the past covering 95 percent of the student body printing, and that is how we came up with the $28 per student,” Andrew Telep, manager of TechPoint Services at Baylor, said.

Although each student is given $28 per PawPrints allowance, business majors, anyone taking a business class and graduate students receive more funds. Each department at Baylor has its own printing budget that allows for a certain amount of paper, toner and ink for the printers in its buildings. Therefore, there is not a certain PawPrints budget that can be split among students, Telep said.

Several students wonder why business majors are given more money for PawPrints than those in other majors. Telep said the reason behind this is because there is a fee applied to anyone taking a business class, and every department has a different allocation of its budget toward printing.

“Anyone taking a business class pays a technology fee and that is $25 which gives them access to the technology commons lab and an additional $21 on their PawPrints which translates to 300 pages one-sided and 600 pages double-sided,” Telep said.

Graduate students and MBA students also get added allowances to their PawPrints.

“Graduate offices have a different type of printing requirement because they are working on their thesis and dissertation. Therefore, they have a different need which adds $14 to their allowance,” Telep said.

Little Rock, Ark., senior Kira Deaton, an international business major, said Baylor provides $45 of PawPrints to her every semester. Deaton said she is grateful for the amount given to her, but she doesn’t spend all of it in one semester.

“I never use all of it. I have about $40 left over every semester, and I feel that the money spent on PawPrints per student can be used on other things,” Deaton said.

Education students are allotted the same amount as most students, $28 for PawPrints. Clarksville, Tenn., freshman Mckenzie Maynard is studying secondary education for social studies and said she believes education majors should get more money for PawPrints because of the amount of printing they have to do.

“I have used most of my PawPrints and I am down to $6 until the end of the semester,” Maynard said.

According to the PawPrints website, if students spend more than their allowance, their PawPrints balance will appear negative, and the balance will be charged to their student account.

“As an education major, we have to create lesson plans and print them along with PowerPoints and worksheets. When you start to teach, you have to provide all of these things for the students and the printing comes out of your money,” Maynard said.