Brendan Schlitt ‘24 | Colin Schlitt ‘24
New printing procedures and WiFi technology at EA this year have created controversy among the student body.
Director of IT Huy Tran explains the changes, “Large printers and copiers are almost always on a 5-year lease with a leasing company. Our previous lease agreement expired over the summer, so updating the printer fleet was not an option.” The use of the new printing application, PaperCut, helps “make printing at EA more efficient and reduces large amounts of paper waste every year.” Co-President of the Student Alliance for Sustainability Riley Thibodeau ‘23 feels that “the new printing system is a great step for sustainability within our school. Although it may be frustrating to figure out at first, it will help to drastically reduce paper waste.”
Photo Courtesy of Ashley Kennedy
Additionally, Tran describes the latest printer models “are faster and have no wear and tear compared to those from last year.” Other updates to the printers enhanced their speed and range — students can now retrieve their papers from any printer on campus after printing using the Secure Print server.
When asked about the benefits of this new printing system, Aryav Dhar ‘24 feels, “A pro about the new printer system is that it is very easy to use. The ID scanning is efficient and helps when you forget to print something before class.” Additionally, Ashley Tang ‘22 thinks that “the printers are great because now I don’t have to remember which printer is which.”
Other students complain that the new procedures make the printing process inconvenient. Students are now required to scan their school ID or log in with their school username and password. Austin Bouvel ‘24 remarks, “I don’t know why they switched — the old printers worked fine and were less complicated. It is irritating how you have to sign in now.” In contrast to her previous statement about the new printer system’s simplicity, Tang expresses that “the only downside is remembering to bring my keycard with me.” EA students can expect to see a printer update every five years, as technology continues to advance and improve.
Aggravations related to the new printing system are hard to separate from changes to the WiFi system. Tran explained the WiFi changes saying, “A security upgrade to the EA Wifi system is long overdue. A simple password is longer sufficient as anyone can get on to our network. With the new enterprise WiFi security system, students can use their computer credentials to authenticate to our WiFi network.”
Given that EA students can only print using the updated version of EA WiFi, printing difficulties have become more common. “Due to the large number of devices connected to the new system, it can be slow,” states Adamo DiCarlo ‘24.