Although the cybraries, short for cyber libraries, are one of the university's best student services, attempting to use them during peak hours is a rigorous test of individual patience. If waiting in long, snaking lines just to use a computer isn't frustrating enough, waiting for any documents to print out is even more taxing. These delays, however, are accepted as the price every student has to pay in order to use an otherwise free facility.
But Wednesday night's printing service at the Lockwood cybrary exemplifies why certain cybrary abuses must no longer be tolerated. Signs at the site warned users that printing a document would take 25 hours, a ridiculous amount of time in any circumstance. The next day, cardboard boxes full of unclaimed papers littered the floor nearby - there were simply too many documents to fit on the shelves.
In order to fully understand the amount of paper that is truly wasted at the cybraries, check out http://www.wings.buffalo.edu/computing/sites/printhistory.html, a Computer and Information Technology Web site with astounding statistics. Between the beginning of the fall 2001 semester and Dec. 19, approximately 10,115,487 pages were printed on the public computing facilities in Capen, Bell, Fronczak, Diefendorf and Lockwood. There are 25, 838 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at UB, which means that on average, each student printed over 391 pages last semester.
But it doesn't matter if a student printed out a shelf of Bibles or never even strayed within sight of a cybrary computer. Everyone is unfairly charged the same, flat computing fee in their tuition bill, while resources are wasted and the printing queues become unbearably long.
Wasted time, of course, is not strictly limited to the printing process. Waiting in the cybrary line offers a view of all the computer monitors and their users' activities. Although most students use the facilities for academic reasons, it's not hard to find individuals using instant messengers, shopping online, or sending love notes by e-mail.
Cybraries are a great resource for students who don't own computers. But that doesn't stop others who have computers at home or in the residence halls from using the public facilities. Although having a personal computer does not mean one should be barred from the cybraries, students must keep in mind that using these computers for personal and frivolous activities takes time away from the students who truly need them.
However, these problems involve more than just the students who abuse the facilities. The CIT staff that "works" at the cybraries have to take a much more active role in monitoring both computing and printing activities. Every cybrary is marked with a sign warning that students performing non-academic work are subject to removal.
The staff should set and rigorously enforce limits to the amount of pages students are allowed to print. No one should be allowed to print hundreds of pages at a time - even if the materials are class-related. Professors, in turn, should also be discouraged from placing too much printable material on-line.
And as a matter of convenience, CIT should set up a public monitor in the cybraries that improves upon the old ones, which are limited to reporting the printing time and operating hours of the cybrary. The monitors should actually expand and specifically show the entire queue of documents, as well as the number of pages each one contains.
But the most equitable measure is to charge the students by the amount of pages they print. Students who choose to print reams of material each semester should expect to pay a hefty computing fee, while those who make no use of the facilities deserve reduced rates. That way, everyone pays for what they use, saving time, paper, and the frustrations of anyone who ever had to wait in the cybraries.
