Brother, can you spare a dime?
New York University, one of the most expensive higher-education institutions in the country, has resorted to rationing paper and charging students for printouts in order to cut costs.
The Greenwich Village school — where tuition plus room and board nearly hit $52,000 this year — is charging students 10 cents per page they print out at campus computer labs.
Seething students derided the measure, which kicks in after a student surpasses a 500-page printout limit per semester, as a cheap shot.
“We’re spending a s- – -load of money to go here, and they’re screwing us over. It sucks,” said John Peter, a 20-year-old philosophy major.
“They’re being stingy about paper, and I’m paying 50 grand a year to go here.”
Students said the seemingly small fee would add up quickly, especially for students whose classes require them to print out lengthy essays or other documents.
“I’m a screenwriter, so I need to print hundreds of pages at a time. I can’t afford that,” said Allison Maggy, 21, a senior. “That really is terrible.”
School officials said the policy was both a cost-cutting measure and an attempt to make students think twice before hitting “print.”
They said nearly one-third of the 18 million pages students printed out in computer labs last year were abandoned as waste.
“These are ‘paper cuts’ that actually shouldn’t sting too bad. Not only does every student still get to print 1,000 pages per year for free, it should also really reduce the 5-6 million sheets of paper that are wasted each year,” said NYU spokesman John Beckman.
Similar measures have been introduced at dozens of smaller colleges — and this year at the larger Washington University in St. Louis — for economic and environmental benefits.
Columbia University has had a printing limit in place for about 10 years, officials there said, but it’s about twice as high as NYU’s.
Despite the burden, some NYU students said they supported the school’s eco-friendly goals.
“This campus is trying to get greener,” said freshman Justin Eberly, 18.