It’s 12:35 on a Red Day. You just finished cramming the last words of your essay for your 5th period English class, but you realize that you need to print out a hard copy to turn in. With just 10 minutes left on the clock, time is of the essence — where should you go to print?
From personal experience and in-the-field research, I present to you a list of available printers around the campus, with details of each one’s benefits and drawbacks.
- Library
In the library, six Chromebooks along the wall can be used to print single-sided, black and white documents. However, the Chromebooks are only available to school accounts, so if your assignment is on a personal account, you need to send it to your @lgsstudent.org email.
Make sure to be patient with these Chromebooks: If you print before the Google Doc fully loads, it will scale the text to around 60% of its original size and print everything in a corner. Make sure to double-check the print preview to confirm your assignment is formatted correctly.
To save paper, the library allows you to print 10 sheets of paper free and charges 10 cents for each subsequent page. I personally use the library’s printer the most, as it is open the longest and most consistently from 7:45 a.m. to 4p.m. each day, excluding lunch hours.
- Journalism Room (Room 303)
If the Library is too far from your location on campus or if it’s closed — which it occasionally is for meetings or testing — the Journalism Room is a fine alternative. The “J” Room, or room 303, has 32 computers and three printers available, meaning you won’t have to wait your turn.
To print, you must log into one of the iMacs on the side of the room with any account. However, this school year, the room is mostly closed on Red Days (5th period only) and is a better bet on Blue Days. Except for color printers at the back of the room, the rest are for non-color, mostly one-sided printing. Falcon adviser Mike Tyler said he hopes to get funding later this year to replace at least two of the older printers in the room.
- Student Center
Recently, the school added two HP printers to the Student Center, located on the left wall by the foosball tables. There is a USB-C cable you can connect to your personal computer to print. However, I found this process very confusing, since the printer doesn’t connect to the computer properly at times. The center is open daily from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., but is, unfortunately, closed during class periods, so you need to plan accordingly.
- Engineering Lab
Next to the back entrance of the weight room, a high-quality, color printer is available in engineering teacher Audrey Warmuth’s Engineering Lab. She is more than happy to let students use the printer, but she doesn’t want students to print excessive amounts of paper. Ask Warmurth for the location of the printer.
- Music Building
There is a printer next to Performing Arts administrative assistant Takako Hasegawa’s office, on the second floor of our Music Building. The printer is non-color, with both single and double-sided printing available. However, as the printer is used solely for music-related content, Hasegawa will only occasionally print for students if one sends her a file.
Printing on campus can be beneficial for students, particularly for those without home printers or for those rushing to meet a deadline for class. From personal experience, some teachers — like health and driver’s education teacher Amy Obenour — are OK with student use of their printers, but make sure to not ask teachers too frequently, as those printers aren’t meant for high-volume printing.
