Almost a year has passed since NIU’s Information Technology Services (ITS) launched its “Green Up NIU” campaign to practice and promote sustainability on NIU’s campus.
“Sustainability means planning and implementing services and programs that have the ability to meet the needs of the present student population without compromising the ability to meet future student needs,” said Cindy Phillips, director of customer service for ITS.
Green Up NIU has already had a significant impact.
Print quota in labs
With the implementation of a printing quota, 3,221,822 fewer sheets of paper were used in fall 2012 compared to fall 2011 for a savings of $18,330. During the fall 2012 semester, only 120 students used their entire 300-page print quota.
The print quota for the fall and spring 2013 semesters will be 200 free prints per semester. The following academic year the quota will be 100 per semester; there will be no free printing in 2015.
Alternatives to printing in the labs
- Anywhere Printing
- With Anywhere Printing, a print job can be submitted from any device with an Internet connection to an Anywhere Printer on campus. The print job will be available for 24 hours at any Anywhere Printer, located near every ITS computer lab.
- Archive, share and collaborate electronically
- Anywhere Printers are multi-function. Instead of printing, documents can be scanned to email or a USB drive.
- NIU Google Apps were introduced in August 2012. Google Drives, Sites, and Groups all provide ways to share and collaborate on documents electronically.
- Anywhere Lab
- Anywhere Printing is the first of three services in the Anywhere Lab suite of services for students. Anywhere Apps will host academic applications in the NIU cloud, allowing access to course software from any device connected to the NIU network.
- Anywhere Files will give students access to their files on the NIU network (H: drive) from any device connected to the NIU network. Both services will be available for fall 2013.
The Green Up NIU campaign is rooted in NIU’s Vision 2020 Initiative which places emphasis on enhancing technology-related instruction and the investment in that technology while making NIU more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
For more information, call (815) 753-8100 or email its@niu.edu.
