To the shock of many returning students this year, the library administration went on the offence in the War on Printing during the summer. 

Taking a page out of the German military playbook, the library launched their own blitzkrieg at the beginning of the summer on the small printing room on the 1st floor of the library. Before the supporters of unsupervised printing could organize a defense, the printers were seized and forcibly relocated behind the Learning Commons desk, to be closely monitored by library officials. 

Some students were dismayed by this aggressive move on the part of the library, decrying the loss of the fundamental right to free printing and lamenting the big brother-like monitoring of printing.

After all, what does our $30,468 in tuition we pay every year go towards if not to pay for thousands upon thousands of sheets of paper so that we can all print our own Hebrew translations of War and Peace?

At this point, we should ask ourselves, are we really that upset about this printing issue, or is it a change for the better? Compare the printing tyranny this year to the anarchy of last year. Which would you rather, printers that are constantly jammed/out of paper/out of ink/projectile vomiting a ridiculously long Powerpoint for World Civ. with only one slide per page or printers that are always filled to the brim with paper and that are supervised so no one can waste time printing the entirety of the Domesday Book?

By moving the printers behind the desk, we get the benefit of more efficient printing, even though only three printers were moved behind the desk. What happened to the fourth printer from the printing room is a mystery we may never solve. In any case, printing times are dramatically decreased despite the disappearance of a printer.

The desk staff also is to be congratulated for making the printing process much more orderly. The mountains of abandoned papers spilling out of the old printing room have been tamed in the form of three trays which are sorted and neat at all times. All in all, I am forced to conclude that this is a much better system.

For all of you who are still skeptical, what are you afraid of? I don’t think the desk worker is going to think any less of you if the margins on the paper you are printing are 1.25 inches instead of the one inch like your professor told you.

In fact, I doubt they even care what your paper is about (so long as you don’t define “paper” as a 900-page book not printed double sided, in which case, they might). Some people are reluctant to accept change, and granted, not all change is good. But in some cases, the results prove that even unpopular changes may turn out for the best.

Garret Fontenot can be reached at [email protected]