Computer consoles added in SBE building for printing needs

PRISM, an organization providing technological resources for students at Laurier, has placed two new printing consoles in both the Peters building and the Schlegal Centre, which will be available for students to use within the next few weeks.

Each of the two consoles houses two computers and connected monitors that will allow students to either connect wirelessly or to print locally, accessing files on the computer provided at the console.

As students are relying more and more on laptops and portable technologies, PRISM is working to create more mobile services to better meet students’ needs.

According to president of PRISM David Silva, there are two computers in each console so that one can be used for students on the Laurier wireless network solely for the purpose of printing while the other can be used by students who need to take time to search, for example to download from their email, without incurring lineups.

“It will hopefully minimize wait times for the stations and speed up the process.”

Printing access through these stations will be available by OneCard swipe to any Laurier student, as Silva explains that they have no way to limit the access to PRISM members and that they have no desire to do so.

“It is a PRISM initiative available to all students … we’ve been looking at just giving back and helping students,” said Silva.

To connect wirelessly to the printing console, students can visit the PRISM website and install a driver which will then indentify the printing stations on their computer and allow access for printing.

The printers will allow for black and white pages and will cost five cents per page, the same as all other PRISM services.

These consoles are intended to save time for students who need to print, enabling them to avoid having to log into lab computers.

While PRISM is not releasing the cost for purchasing and installing the kiosks, Silva explained that they were under-budget on the project and that more information would be available when they release their annual report.