A new program from the Office of Computing Services will allow members of the University community to print their work while lounging in the Quad or sunning themselves on the Parade Ground.
Stacey Morales, manager of public access computing for OCS, said she has heard a good response for the program since its inception this summer.
The system works by allowing users on the campus network to open a list of the 43 available printers on campus and to send the document to the printer station by going to www.lsu.edu/stflabs and clicking on the wireless printing graphic on the right side of the screen.
After the document is sent to the printer, it will remain in a queue — a lineup of jobs waiting to be printed — for 90 minutes until the user pulls up the document from the selected printing station where it is then printed.
The cost of the print job — 5 cents for black and white and 25 cents for color — is charged to the user’s Tiger Card account.
Morales said demand came from students in art and design majors who often use their own computers for classwork.
Hunter Brown, an architecture senior and president of the College of Art and Design Student Council, said he was not aware of such a program, but said it could be helpful to students, especially if the printers were capable of printing large format projects, like those architecture students create.
Morales said there was almost no cost involved in getting the program up and running because the technology being used is part of the Microsoft Windows platform.
Will Hennegan, a computer science senior and co-director of Information Technology for Student Government, said plans are in the works to install an Internet printing kiosk at the information desk in the Union when renovations are complete.
Morales said OCS is looking to expand the program, and the next step will most likely involve a collaboration with Contracted Auxiliary Services and Copier Management to allow users to print to copy machines on campus.