GSA adds free printing for grad students at Biomedical Library

Graduate students will be able to print documents for free at the Biomedical Library starting Monday.

All graduate students will be able to print up to 250 pages per quarter for free, said Michael Skiles, president of the Graduate Students Association.

Skiles said he worked with the Student Technology Center to add a printer at the Biomedical Library as part of the association’s South Campus Printing Initiative. The initiative currently provides free printing for students at the Graduate Student Resource Center in the Student Activities Center.

Skiles said GSA is funding the printer, and GSRC hired a work-study student to maintain the printer. The initiative will cost less than $10,000 a year, he added.

Skiles said he decided to create the free printing initiative after receiving requests from graduate students at the medical school to provide a printing option closer to the southern part of campus.

“Medical students … had complained about the fact that there isn’t printing down there and that the Student Activities Center is too far for them to take advantage of the printing services under most circumstances,” he said.

Allie Ariniello, a medical student and GSA representative, said she lobbied GSA for several months to establish the free printing initiative. She added she noticed many graduate students were not taking advantage of the free printing offered at SAC.

“I did my undergraduate degree at UC Santa Barbara and they had three or four printing resources on campus,” she said. “I wanted to see if we could do something similar.”

Several graduate students said they think the initiative complements existing free printers on campus.

Cecilia Boveda, a nursing student, said she thinks the lines at the free printing station in the GSRC are too long.

“If I have to print, I just go to one of the little kiosks and pay for it,” she said. “If you forget to print something, you’re kind of screwed, (because) we only have an hour between classes and so we don’t have time to walk over (to the GSRC).”

Boveda said the free printer in the Biomedical Library is more convenient for her because it is closer to her classes.

“It’s way more accessible than having to walk all the way to the main campus area to print stuff,” Boveda said.

Mark Veazie, a medical student, said many of his classmates have previously complained about the lack of free printing options on campus.

“We have a group chat with most of our class, and most of us complain about where spots are free for printing and where they can print,” he said.