By Dylan Morris, The Whetstone

Kevin Johnson walked into the library one morning to print out a paper due for his very next class. The librarian told Johnson, a senior, he needed to put money on his ID card to pay for the printer. He did what he was told and went to the business office to put money on the card.

He still couldn’t print. He discovered it took 24 hours for the card to register his money.

Johnson’s story is like many other students who have had problems with the printing system that began last spring. The Student Government Association is discussing the idea of buying a kiosk that would allow students to put money on their ID cards themselves.

“Students could use their debit/credit cards or as little as $1 in cash to put money on their cards,” Kelsey Fitzpatrick, vice-president of the SGA, said.

The kiosk would be open 24/7.

“I believe the kiosk, which allows students to put credit on their ID cards when the Business Office is closed, would be quite beneficial to the students,” Martha Boyd, instructional and research services librarian, said.

The new printing system was a response to student complaints, many of whom never had the change to use it, or asked that the college institute a swipe system like other colleges.

This change didn’t work at first because the first printers couldn’t scan Wesley IDs due to the ID thickness. This led to the delay of the printers by half a semester, a situation that Fitzpatrick believes caused many of the current problems.

“If it had started at the beginning of the year, it could have been more successful,” Fitzpatrick said. “The students were caught off guard and started wanting their nickels and dimes back.”

“It good-sounding, but you could just use coins from the beginning,” sophomore Kabrea Tyler said. “Coins are easier.”

“It’s been too unreliable, which sucks because it’s my only way to print,” junior Tim Frost said. “Change was easier and it gave me something to use my spare change for.”

The proposed kiosk would also allow students to put money on their card for laundry and meal-plan points.

The initial cost of the kiosk is about $10,000, a price the IT department is negotiating down. Annual costs would be lower in the long run.