By Morgan Minshew | Contributor
Regardless of a student’s classification or major, all students must print documents that are required for assignments and study materials. Buildings such as the Baylor Sciences Building, the Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation and Moody Memorial Library have a vast number of printers available for use by all students. However, some buildings on campus still lack easily accessible printers for student use.
Around campus, there are buildings that lack the proper amount of printers to support student needs. Sid Richardson Building, which is home to the Paul L. Foster Success Center, the mathematics department and OALA, has one printer available for student use. However, in the event this printer stops working, students are forced to go to an alternative building and use a printer there. In addition to being an inconvenience, this can also create problems for the student if they need their papers printed immediately for class purposes.
There are also buildings on campus that don’t have any printers accessible to all students. Cashion Academic Center has one printer, but it is only available to students in the graduate program. Throughout the building there are numerous areas for studying with excellent accommodating features, such as large study tables and white boards. These areas would make the building a prime spot for studying, except there are not any printers available for use by undergraduates. This forces all undergraduate students and students of different majors to travel to other campus buildings in order to print homework, notes and study materials.
Caroline Longoria is a Baylor senior getting her degree in communication sciences and disorders. Many of the classes within her major are taught in Cashion Academic Center.
“As an undergrad CSD student, I am constantly printing out pages and crafts for my classes. In Cashion, where many of my classes are, there isn’t a printer for us to use or to print on. If I need to print something, I would need to go to the SUB or to the business school,” Longoria said. “The school has made accessibility to technology and printers easy, however our building is one of a few that don’t have access to a printer.”
When investments are made to increase the number of available printers, you see an increase in the popularity of that building as a designated study area. For example, the business school offers black and white printers on the second, third and fourth floors. Additionally, there are also three black and white printers in the Technology Lab alongside one color printer. There are also 12 other printers located throughout the business school in classrooms, specific departments and the graduate student lounge. These printers, combined with numerous study rooms, open study areas on each floor, computers and other resources available in the business school make it a hot study spot for both business students (like myself) and students of all other majors.
A day in the life of a college student can be insanely busy with classes, meetings, work, studying and other social commitments. Access to the essentials, in this case printers, can improve the ease of a students day by preventing additional trips to other buildings just to print papers. Investments by the individual colleges, and Baylor University should be made to increase the number and accessibility of printers throughout campus.
Morgan Minshew
Senior marketing major
Fort Worth
