The Cost of Printing at NYU

With more than 43 print stations scattered across its campus, any kind of frustration with NYU’s printers can seem hard to believe. Nevertheless, factors of visibility, reliability, cost and convenience all contribute to a mental paper jam.

While the university’s IT website lists nearly 50 printers located on the Washington Square Campus, students often do not know where to find them. Hidden in residence hall basements and tucked around corners, these resources can be tricky to spot.

“I normally print on the fourth or fifth floors about two times a week, and about 25 percent of the time I get a Pharos [system] error,” says CAS senior Aisha Bosula, referring to the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library. “But now I don’t think there is a printer on the fourth floor anymore.”

As of Saturday afternoon, there was a printer on the south side of the library’s fourth floor, though it was difficult to locate, and at first glance seemed to be reserved for copier functions. Even the two employees at the reference desk had to ask one another whether there was, in fact, a printer on the floor. They eventually referred me to a pamphlet. Even when you finally find a printer, there is no guarantee it will be working. Unless of course you know about the Print Service Status app.

Admin Alma Buljina for the NYU Lipton Hall Class of 2021 Facebook page posted about IT’s recently-developed NYU Print Service Status app in October. Located within the NYU Mobile app, this feature provides real-time printer information for all of the printers on campus including location, whether a printer is busy, free or out of service, as well as ink, toner and paper levels. The post was only shared to the specific residence hall Facebook group, however, and other students outside of this group may not be aware of this feature.

For instance, the app currently shows that printers on the third, fourth and ninth floor of Bobst are offline, without paper and out of toner. Printers on the two lower levels, and first, fifth, and sixth floors are shown to be in working order.

CAS junior Labina Mustafa says she wishes there were greater access to color printers on campus, which are limited to locations on the fifth floor and first lower level of the library. Additionally, the cost of printing can add up. NYU charges 75 cents per side to print in color and 10 cents per double-sided page to print in black and white.

The university provides students with $50 of print money per Fall and Spring semesters, which is included in the tuition and pre-loaded onto their ID. Faculty only receive $5 per semester, which is a whole other issue. The print allowance sounds high, though in classes that require lengthy readings to always be printed, such as creative writing, it is possible to run out. Students must then add money to their online Campus Cash account.

“I don’t think the print grant for students should be higher,” says NYU master’s student Noa Shusterman. “Because then it will entice them to print more and make NYU condone even more printing.”

If print grants do happen to run out, or if color printing at NYU feels too expensive, there are other options in the area. Unique Copy Center on Greene Street charges 25 cents per side for black and white printing and 99 cents for color. Meanwhile Staples on Broadway charges 13 cents per page for self-service black and white printing and 54 cents per page for self-service color printing. Both locations offer price breaks for printing more than 500 pages, employees say.

Liberal Studies administrative aid Irene Patron informs me that some departments on campus offer free printing to their students, including LS and Stern.

A mislabeled printer pricing sign on the third floor of Palladium.

Still, convenience is an important factor considering that students are typically rushing to print between classes and have little time to play hide-and-seek with the machines. NYU has printers in every residence hall, though the closest well-known printers to academic buildings tend to be in Bobst and the Kimmel Center for University Life. This leads to constant paper depletion and long lines at those locations.

“The printers [on the first lower level] are constantly getting jammed because students try to change the size of the paper or use resume paper, and these printers can only print one size,” explains Tandon senior and Bobst Computer Center employee, Annie Zeng. “It happens every day.”