Flames Of The Torch

Printing money or Flex Dollars?

If you’re a junior or a senior, you’ve probably noticed that the money the school gives you for printing is starting to add up. There are plenty of reasons why we believe many upperclassmen don’t advantage of the $40 a semester the school is giving them.

With 69 percent of the student body living off campus, whether on their own or with family, or taking a semester abroad, there may be less of a need for the printing money. For example, students who live off campus may have their own access to printers and study abroad students cannot use their printing money. And there are also some majors that don’t require a lot of printing. Also there is an increase of professors going paperless through Blackboard.

That’s why we believe the University allots entirely too much money each semester towards something that not many students are taking advantage of. The option for students to have money for printing is great — we admit it definitely comes in handy at times — but to have the money roll over each semester could go to a much more practical use for college students.

The senior editors at the Torch all agree that having almost $300 sitting on our storm cards for printing, which will expire and go to waste as soon as we graduate, is way too excessive.

We encourage the University to consider allowing that money to be spent in other ways by students rather than limit to strictly printing.

Flex dollars, another form of stormcard money, can be spent in various ways, including at the bookstore or at campus dining establishments. Currently, printing money can only be used for printing and copying while dining dollars can only be used for food. Allocating each student, say, $40 in flex dollars, rather than in printing money, would allow them to use that money for printing and for anything else they might need, including books. This would provide flexibility and more freedom with their $40, instead of restricting students to spending money in the computer labs.

This system would be fairer for all and encourage students to use their resources fully, rather than hundreds of dollars in unused printing money going to waste each year.