This year, students are required to watch what they print, in order to conserve resources.

Students are now allotted a $9 printing budget per semester, equivalent to 300 single-sided black and white sheets. Each sheet costs 3 cents to print. Simpson monitors each person’s printing through a software package called PaperCut.

According to Al Appenzeller, director of Information Services, the goal is to make students aware of how much they print and eliminate waste.

“Printing management software is in no way meant to penalize students,” Appenzeller said. “The reason we are implementing it is by and large to get waste under control.”

Appenzeller said after monitoring everyone’s printing, Information Services realized that a management policy needed to be implemented.

“We [Simpson] aren’t unique to this problem-everyone seemed to be experiencing a problem with waste, Appenzeller said.”

This semester no one will be charged for overages, but printing will be assessed. If students are over their allotment, Information Services will examine classes with heavy printing, and can adjust their budgets accordingly.

“Our idea is that we’re not going to charge you for anything that you have to print out for course work,” Appenzeller said. “We’re not tying to make money off this, we’re just trying to reduce waste. “

Junior Katie Van der Linden thinks the policy will help students become more aware of how much they’re printing.

“Being an environmental science major, I think that it’s kind of neat that you can see how much paper you use and how many trees you are using,” Van Der Linden said.

Not every students feels so optimistic about the change.

“I think that the policy is unfair and we pay enough as it is,” said junior Tara Eggers. “Granted, some people abuse it, but it’s not fair to those who didn’t.”

Appenzeller said the environmental repercussions are the reason for the new policy, not monetary concerns.

“We’re in a society now where we are all supposed to be thinking green,” Appenzeller said.