Gone are the days when students were confined to printing documents from either their own printers or from a computer lab.
After nearly a year of surveying and consulting with students, UC Riverside’s central technology hub, known as Information Technology Solutions or ITS, has purchased and installed 19 self-service printing kiosks that are now available throughout the campus.
The printers, also known as WEPA kiosks, allow students to send their work to a queue that lives in the cloud, eliminating the need for onsite servers. Students then access their work by logging into the kiosk with their R’Card and a personal identification number they create on site.
Users are also able to print from flash drives, email, scan, print double-sided, and print in color — though some services are only available in select kiosks. Visit wepanow.com/maps and search “UCR” for a full list of kiosk locations and their capabilities.
“We wanted to expand and improve options for students,” said Sam Robbin, director of campus support and assessment with ITS. Faculty and staff can also use the machines with an R’Card. Two more kiosks will be added by the end of the school year.
Rebecca Hutchins, ITS manager for communications and assessment, said the team approached the Associated Students of UCR, also known as ASUCR, to hear directly from students. Results from a survey sent to the entire student body population demonstrated the need for improved printing options. The printers have a higher printing capacity than the old machines, which translates into decreased wait times at computer labs.
Having WEPA printers, which have been available since fall quarter, throughout campus also means students are not confined to strict lab hours.
Each quarter students automatically receive a $7 allocation for printing that is supported by Student Technology Fees. Printing fees run at 7 cents for single-sided, black-and-white copies, and 35 cents for single-sided color copies. The machines also accept Bear Bucks.
Students who have questions or need to report a broken printer can contact Bear Help at 951-827-4848 or visit its.ucr.edu to submit a work support ticket.
Students Ramiro Sedillo and Destin Blair praised the kiosks during a recent Tuesday visit to the stations on the first floor of the Tomás Rivera Library.
“They’re pretty easy to use, and faster,” said Sedillo, a third-year biochemistry major. That Tuesday he was printing a lab report for class.
The process took less than a minute, as it did for Blair, an English major using the printing machines for the first time.
“It was fairly easy and much less complicated than the printers in my previous school,” said Blair, a transfer student who began classes at UCR during winter quarter. “Plus, it’s less expensive. At my other institution it was 10 cents per page, here it’s 7 cents. And each quarter we get $7 in our account. That’s great!”
