The University is trying to reduce costs in the face of yearly budget cuts by transferring some of its printed publications to its Web site, beginning with the schedule of classes and bulletin. The schedule of classes for summer and fall 2006 are now available in downloadable format through the Nicholls Web site, but printed versions will cost students $1 a piece plus tax from the University Bookstore. Larry Howell, Associate Provost, said the new cost is part of Nicholls’ transition to eliminating the printing of any schedules and getting the campus in the habit of utilizing the Internet.

“More and more students are now in tune to doing things online, and we want to stop seeing schedules of classes all over the yard,” Howell said. “This is the beginning of trying to run the University more efficiently and putting the resources we would normally spend on printing these to better use.”

Howell said the University has been cutting back on the number of schedules of classes it prints and has not received any complaints from students. He said the $1 cost for schedules of classes this year was determined based on the costs of printing the roughly 50-page booklet from a University computer lab. Printing from a computer lab costs about 2 cents per page.

Since the schedule of classes is online, Nicholls has a limited number of printed versions available for purchase. Twenty five hundred copies of the fall 2006 and 1,500 copies of the summer 2006 schedule of classes were printed this semester. Of the 4,000 booklets, 550 were distributed to advisers and academic departments, and the rest were sent to the University Bookstore. For the 2005 semesters, 8,000 spring, 4,000 summer and 9,000 fall schedule of classes were printed. Schedules of classes usually cost 60 cents a piece to print.

Howell said Nicholls has seen a large surge in the number of pages printed from University computers since the schedules were put online, which he attributes to students who are printing the entire booklets. While students are allowed to print the entire documents, they are still limited to printing only 300 pages per month.

“Until you can educate people that they don’t need to print out the whole thing, only the pages they need, we’re going to have to transfer some of the former costs from printing to student printing (from the labs),” Howell said.

An E-mail sent out to students from academic affairs stated that no printed schedules of classes will be available starting with the spring 2007 semester, but Howell said the University will wait to see what this semester’s demand is for printed copies before making that decision. He said it may take longer than the summer and fall for the majority of the University to transition.

Howell said the online schedule of classes also allows for the University to offer students up-to-date information on class offerings and availability.

“By the time the schedules are printed, some things are not even accurate,” Howell said. “When students access the schedule online, it is the information that is accurate from that day, not from the beginning of March.”

Also, Howell said students who attend orientation will no longer receive a printed copy of the University bulletin, but will be shown how to access the bulletin online. Bulletins are still being printed for advisers and academic departments. Howell said Nicholls will probably eliminate the printing of the bulletin as well but is not sure how long that will take.

The transition to online documents to cut printing costs is a common practice among universities, Howell said.