Am I the only person who considers the new 400-page printing allowance a slap in the face? If you hadn’t noticed the large billboards in Snell Library, or the annoying pop-ups on InfoCommons computers, students are now given a balance of $40 per semester. Each page printed off these computers counts as 10 cents, subtracted from the initial balance of $40.

I can understand an increase in the usage of InfoCommons – the place is always packed. I can understand a rise in the price of paper – the world is running out of trees, right? I can understand a hike in the price of ink, as ridiculous as that may sound. I can also understand the imposition of a limit in the amount of pages students are allowed to print per semester – after all, there are always those who push the boundaries of the acceptable (in this case, those who choose to print unnecessary and extravagant numbers of pages). But I cannot, no matter how hard I try, begin to fathom how Northeastern can impose an allowance of 400 pages of printed material per semester.

“Oh, he’s overreacting,” you say?

Is it considered overreacting when I’m assigned multiple thousands of pages of online reading? This is for one class, mind you. Am I expected to sit at a computer for hours? Or should I suggest Northeastern pick up the bill for my eye doctor? Is it overreacting when, among four classes total, the number of pages I will need to print – for required papers alone – exceeds this quota?

Give me a break. Seriously. Give me another six hundred pages of “break.”

I find it extremely hard to believe, given recent and utterly ridiculous tuition hikes, that Northeastern can’t afford to allow students to print whatever the hell they find necessary in terms of numbers of pages per semester.

The new “allowance” of 400 pages is a mere pittance, and an insulting one at that. This is higher education at its lowest – and cheapest. So, I wanted to say once again – thank you, Northeastern.

I will gladly pay my excess printing charges in pennies. Here’s 300 for my senior capstone paper. And another 1,000 for its drafts.

– John Wilusz is a senior political science major.