Canada’s University of New Brunswick has raised its printing prices on campus this semester, prompting some students to question whether the cost is justifiable.

As reported by student publication, The Brunswickan, the copy and printing price increases took effect in January raising full-color jobs to $0.50 per page for one sided prints and $0.75 per page for double sided. New Brunswick students can pay for copy/print services on campus with their student ID card, the UCard.

Students can deposit money into their UCard Cash account to pay for print jobs, and can easily check the balance add quickly add more funds as needed through the university’s myUNB Portal.

Dave Totton, senior director of IT Operations at the Universtiy of New Brunswick, explains that the rise in copy/print cost is necessary in part because students aren’t using the service as much as in previous years. Despite the rise in color printing prices, black and white printing remains at a reasonable $0.10 per page for single-sided and $0.15 per page for double-sided jobs.

“The reason costs increased was because at the previous rate, combined with a decline in student usage, the actual cost of running color printers was not being covered,” Totton said in a Brunswickan interview.

The new price changes will also standardize print pricing across UNB’s campus, ending price differences between various campus printing locations. Nevertheless, some students still believe the prices to be too high.

Students do have other alternatives to print their documents off campus from non-university locations, though the grass isn’t always greener.

In comparison to other printing options from around the university’s surrounding community of Fredericton, UNB’s printing rates aren’t very pricy.  The Brunswickan report tallied the costs, including tax, of other copy/print options available beyond the walls of campus:

	Single sided	Double sided
UNB	$.50	$.75
Staples	$.40	$.90
UPS Store	$1.15	$2.30
Six Colour Copy	$.29	$.52