Printer Allocations and Costs

Faculty/Staff and Students

To support the mission of Michigan Ross and the University as a whole, Ross faculty and staff do not have quotas imposed on printing. Usage does get monitored and logged, however, both to help ensure that printing resources are being used as efficiently as possible and used only for academic or business purposes.

Students are given a fixed printing allocation from both the University of Michigan and the Ross School of Business. Once both balances are exhausted, the printing allocation goes into a "negative balance" (shown in red when you check your balance), and that amount gets charged to their student account in Wolverine Access.
 

Charges for Printing and Copying for Students

  • Black & White – $0.06 per letter-sized impression
  • Color – $0.23 per letter-sized impression
  • Tabloid – Each 11"x17" impression counts as two letter-size impressions (tabloid size may not be available on all printers)

An impression is defined as the print surface of a single piece of paper. For example, if you print a two page Word document on both sides of a single sheet of paper, you are charged for two impressions even though you only used one sheet of paper.

Documents that do not physically print are not charged. Students are only charged when their document begins printing.
 

How Balances Work for Ross Students

All students of the University of Michigan, including Ross students, get $24 in printing funds allocated to them each semester by the University.

Although displayed as a currency, this quota has no real cash value and is really just a means to allocate usage. Unused funds are not refunded and do not get rolled-over into subsequent semesters, and can not be transferred between people. The $24 balance gets replenished on the first day of each semester, three times per year (Fall, Winter, and Spring/Summer).

In addition to that, the Ross School of Business puts $120 into your printing account at the beginning of each Fall semester (once per year). These funds behave in exactly the same way as those provided by U-M, with the only exception being that the balance is only replenished once per year.

The key thing to remember is that you get $24 from U-M each semester, and $120 from Ross each year, and your U-M funds get used first.

These usage examples might help illustrate how each balance works together, but separately:

  1. A Ross student begins the Fall semester with a balance of $144 ($120 from Ross + $24 from U-M). That student uses $20 worth of printing over the course of the Fall semester, bringing their balance down to $124 ($120 from Ross + $4 remaining from U-M). On the first day of the Winter semester, the student would see their balance reset to $144 ($120 from Ross + $24 from U-M).
  2. A Ross student begins the Fall semester with a balance of $144 ($120 from Ross + $24 from U-M). That student uses $130 worth of printing over the course of the Fall semester (wow!), bringing their balance down to $14 ($14 remaining from Ross + $0 remaining from U-M). On the first day of the Winter semester, the student would see their balance reset to $38 ($14 remaining from Ross + $24 from U-M).
     

How Balances Work for Non-Ross Students

University of Michigan students who are not enrolled in any classes at Ross can still use the printers at Ross, but do not get any supplemental funding beyond the $24 per semester.

University of Michigan students who are enrolled in at least one Ross class (including Minor in Business students) can use the printers at Ross as explained in the section above, except Ross provides $20 in supplemental funding instead of $120.
 

Checking Your Printing Balance

Students may check their printing balance using the link in the side-bar, located on the upper right of this page. Available balances cannot be seen at the printer.
 

Requesting Additional Funds and/or Refunds

Should you find yourself running out of printing funds, you do not need to request additional funds. Simply keep printing, and your printing allocation balance will go into the negative. You won't be prevented from printing and will not be charged any extra fees for this. Your negative printing allocation balance will then be billed to your student account via Wolverine Access on a monthly basis until your account balance is $0 or gets reset at the beginning of a term.

To dispute a charge or to inquire about a refund, please log in to the PaperCut web interface.
 

Last Updated on November 17, 2022