SUNY Print Initiative - Administrative Printing • Campus Technology Services • Purchase College

SUNY Print Initiative - Administrative Printing

In June 2020, SUNY mandated campus participation in their Office Print Management initiative. A local Print Management Team was formed by the CFO and has been working with SUNY and their vendors for the last 2- ¾ years.

We are pleased to announce that that effort has now culminated in the purchase of new high-efficiency printers that are being deployed across campus this spring. Replacing our hodge-podge of creaky old printers with reliable new high-efficiency printers will also dramatically reduce the college’s print expenses going forward. More information can be found in our Pharos Printing FAQ.

Administrative Printer Locations

Key Take-Aways

This initiative covers all Administrative Office Printing expenses across campus.
Student printing in Computer Labs, classrooms and the Library is not included at this time and will continue to use the existing Paper Cut system. Further savings on student printers are clearly achievable, and CTS will be looking to convert student computer labs to the new printers later this year.
Participating in the SUNY Print Initiative provides significant savings for Purchase College.
The most expensive printers to operate – desktop printers – will be eliminated.
Default print settings B/W and double-sided for everything and everyone. Change the default settings when you need to.
Color printing should be avoided – but will remain available to all.

Keep It Up!

Continuing to reduce the amount you print will help the College achieve strategic goal 1.1.5: Expand our commitment to sustainable environmental practices, while reducing expenses.

Avoid returning to old printing habits and save trees. We have all embraced Electronic Meetings and Electronic Documents over last 3 years, and we should continue using those options to share information. CTS can provide tips to help you make good use of electronic documents.

Frequently Asked Questions

Prior to the pandemic, administrative print expenses for fiscal year 2018-2019 were $202,702.

The pandemic reduced print volume on campus, but it began to climb again after the return to campus reaching $112,938 for 2021-22. These figures represent the costs associated with running 226 older printers.

After studying an exhaustive dataset of actual usage, SUNY/Toshiba recommended a total of 44 administrative printers (down from 226). Our Local Print team interviewed 50+ Directors and unit heads to review the SUNY recommendations and make adjustments. In the end, we arrived at a total count of 41 administrative printers.

The SUNY initiative will reduce expenses since the per-page expense is dramatically lower for new Toshiba and HP printers:

Our Existing Canon fleet $0.015/page for monochrome versus Toshiba/HP fleet $0.004/page.
Our Existing Canon fleet $0.084/page for Color versus Toshiba fleet $0.03 /page.

For fiscal year 2023-24 at current volumes, we project total annual print expenses of $30,115. That represents a projected savings of $85,882 per year (and savings of over $170,000 per year compared to pre-pandemic print expenses.)

The new printers use a cloud-based universal print driver. You no longer have to select a printer you want to send a print job to. You can walk up to any of the new printers to get your printout.

The print scout was already deployed to campus owned computers. Contact CTS if you need it installed. You may download and install either the Windows or Mac version of the Pharos print scout on your personal computer and print to any of the new printers over a wired connection or PurchaseWifi.

The new printers use Secure Print Release (see video) to ensure the privacy of sensitive materials. Your job will not come out until you arrive at a printer and swipe your faculty/staff More Card to release the printout. If you forgot your More Card, you can use the touchscreen to log into the printer and release your job. If you need a More Card, please contact the More Card Office on the Web, by email at PCA.more.card@purchase.edu, or by phone at (914) 251-6330.

The SUNY Print Contract allowed a choice of four printer models – 2 color, and 2 monochrome.

Toshiba eStudio-5516ac (Product video)
HP LaserJet E62665 (monochrome) (Product video)
HP LaserJet E60165 (monochrome) (lower end HP – we did not buy any of these)

We also received special approval from SUNY to add a smaller midrange color Multi-Function Device to our fleet:

Toshiba eStudio-400a (Product video)

Department Managers no longer need to order supplies or paper for regular administrative office printing. The new printers automagically ‘phone-home’ to order toner when needed, and it will be delivered to you. CTS will provide standard office paper in 8.5 x 11” and 11 x 17” sizes.

Please note that CTS does not supply pre-printed letterhead or high-quality bonded stock that might be needed for certain jobs.

There will be no print allocations or quotas for college employees. CTS will use the Pharos Print Dashboard to monitor and review print usage and will share usage reports with department managers upon request. All print use will be tracked, monitored, and reported by user, by department, by page count, and by type (color vs b/w, single vs double-sided.) Significant anomalies will be reviewed and may be brought to unit management attention. But you can and should print what you need to print for college business.

Campus Technology Services