

Colleges Save Money by Cutting Free Laundry, ESPN, HBO - mhb
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/education/19college.html?_r=1&hpw

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jrockway
Most of these things save a few dollars in the short term, but actually cost
everyone more money in the long run.

Example:

 _limiting them to $60 worth of free printing per semester. Next year,
students will be limited to $50 per semester_

Unless paper actually costs ten cents a sheet, this is meaningless. It will,
however, convince each and every student to buy their own printers. Now the IT
support line will have to handle more calls, and more hunks of plastic will
end up in the landfills in a few years.

But at least they saved 100 sheets of paper!

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pavel_lishin
_It will, however, convince each and every student to buy their own printers.
Now the IT support line will have to handle more calls, and more hunks of
plastic will end up in the landfills in a few years._

Right, but none of those things really affect the college's bottom line in any
way. Students buying their own printers doesn't cost Unknown U any money, and
the landfill issue is also not something that they're fiscally responsible
for. As far as IT support lines, I don't remember my university's IT
department supporting private purchases, with the exception of problems
relating to connecting to the school-provided wireless connection.

The problems you raise are real, but not relevant to the subject.

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anon-e-moose
Should it mean anything that the majority of these would be less than a year
or two of one students out of state tuition? Can we say completely symbolic?

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keltecp11
In law school, we had all of our paper sponsored by Westlaw and Lexis Nexis...
I wonder if you are going to start seeing this occur in undergraduate
institutions...

