Students who waited until Thursday to do their printing jobs for free at the Office of Student Computing Resources labs have to dish out the 10 cents per page for printing this semester like every other day of the week, said OSCR officials.

Free printing was offered in all OSCR labs on Thursdays earlier this semester, then in select labs, but now free printing is no longer offered any day of the week, said Yvette Lizarraga, a political science sophomore and OSCR computer lab consultant.

“”It was more like a promotion for OSCR so students can get to know where the labs are and that they can use computers outside of the (Manuel T. Pacheco Integrated Learning Center),”” Lizarraga said. “”OSCR also takes care of computers if they have problems.””

Tom Rees, assistant director of OSCR, said there are various reasons for the discontinuation of free printing services.

OSCR’s goal is to be a definite service to students while staying within budget, Rees said.

“”It was surprising that people got so used to free printing,”” Rees said. “”It was only intended for one semester.””

OSCR would want to continue offering the free printing, but balancing budget and efficiency negate that possibility, Rees said.

“”The cost of printing is surprisingly expensive,”” Rees said. “”Part of it’s budget, part is trying to give maximum service to the maximum number of students.””

Ainsley Lloyd, a junior majoring in economics, Spanish and Portuguese, said most of the complaints from students are because they will not be able to print lengthy class readings for free.

“”It can be unreasonable to demand free printing because students have access to it online where you don’t have to pay anyway,”” Lloyd said.

Rees said the idea of providing free printing is good in theory, but students often abused the privilege.

“”By the end of last semester, most of what was being printed for free was not academic,”” Rees said.

Agueda Vela, a public health senior, said OSCR labs were often overcrowded on Thursdays due to the free printing.

“”People tried to print everything; it was sometimes exaggerated,”” Vela said. “”Class readings can be like 75 pages. I don’t print them out; that’s too much paper.””

It is unlikely that free printing will be brought back to the OSCR labs, Rees said.

Today there will be a meeting discussing what went right and what went wrong with the free printing, Rees said.

“”If people want to comment, we would love to hear from them,”” Rees said.

To share your opinion with OSCR, e-mail OSCR@email.arizona.edu.