Put a printer in building 42
Anonymous submitted on
Wednesday 26th October 2022
Complete
I think this has been asked previously but it was dismissed with poor reasoning and was not looked into.
It was said that due to sustainability reasons we shouldn't encourage printing. This is a very one dimensional argument. If someone needs to print something they can still do it in the library or campus, it just makes it difficult/inconvienet to work in the SUSU building if you need to print anything and doesn't stop anyone from printing.
Every night of the week music societies rehearse in building 42, we have to use printed sheet music and there is no way around this. If we need to print music during the rehearsal we are not easily able to, at best a committee member has to be sent to the library and miss a large portion of the rehearsal whilst people may be sitting around waiting. If it is raining the sheet music will likely get damaged and have to be reprinted afterwards which creates more waste.
The fact that it is such an inconvience to print during rehearsals means we are more likely to print far mar copies than we expect just in case. If we knew we could quickly print an extra part if needed we'd actually print less.
Several of the music societies are non-auditioned and anyone can join at any time in the year so more music could be needed to be printed without us habing any warning otherwise new members will not be able to join in.
Responses
Here, you can view the complete set of official responses from the sabbatical officers regarding this submission.
Students' Union replied on
Sunday 19th Feb 2023 1:42pm
Hi,
I have been informed that we have been given approval for a printer to be placed in B42. We are simplying waiting on delivery now. I will chase up the teams but have not received a confirmation of when this will be in place. When we have the printer in use we will share information via our social media channels.
I am going to close this submission now as everything has been action. If you have any further questions or concerns, please make another submission or reach out to me directly at president@soton.ac.uk
All the best,
Oliver Murray
Union President 2022-2023
Students' Union replied on
Tuesday 10th Jan 2023 7:20am
Hi,
Following up from this I have been informed that iSolutions was performing inventory of printers in December. They will likely have this completed by the end of January. With this in mind, we should be able to get a printer in February at the earliest! I will keep this submission open until then.
All the best,
Oliver Murray
Union President 2022-2023
Students' Union replied on
Sunday 27th Nov 2022 9:24pm
Hi,
Apologies for the delayed update! Our COO is still in the process of speaking to the iSolutions team. As this has taken longer than expected I will be in contact with the team this week to request that the process is expedited.
All the best,
Oliver Murray
Union President 2022-2023
Students' Union replied on
Wednesday 2nd Nov 2022 1:19pm
Hi,
Thank you for your submission!
I have asked our COO to speak to the iSolutions team about installing a printer in B42. Unfortunately, iSolutions has delayed responses so it may be a week or so before I hear back. In the meantime, please be wary of issues with printing potentially copyrighted sheet music.
All the best,
Oliver Murray
Actions
Forwarded to Union President
Friday 28th Oct 2022 9:43am
Comments
Let's keep this space positive and respectful! Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions, but please remember to keep the conversation friendly and avoid any offensive comments.
Hi Fiona, that was the response I was given by SUSU. I never meant to assume that printing therefore wouldn't be done, but I was doing my role as a Sabbatical Officer in chasing and responding. If there was a response during my term in office, I'd have been able to chase this further. Unfortunately, it is very much a two-way street for communication, and therefore if a student doesn't reply, we have to assume that the response is sufficient. In this case, it wasn't and I am very sorry to have let you down, but being a Sabb truly does have its limitations.
I appreciate the complexity of musical rehearsals, but as I said previously, there are alternatives to having a printer in Building 42. As far as I'm aware, there is one behind reception, so perhaps requesting that societies can have access to the printer behind reception would be a way forward, rather than implementing a brand new printer.
The reasoning you gave was "Unfortunately, the current printer contract ends on the 23rd of August 2022 and as SUSU become more sustainable, the goal is for fewer printers in the spaces", I'm sure you did put a fair amount of effort into it but this response does not reflect it and hasn't taken into consideration that just because there's not a printer in building 42 doesn't mean the printing won't still happen and/or needs doing.
Music societies do obviously do membership via groups hub but usually students can come for a couple taster rehearsals before they're expected to pay membership, and membership doesn't help us know what instrument and part they're going to be playing - there are around 20 different instruments and up to around 45 different parts. We also don't know when page turns are awkward and extra pages are going to be printed, someone's taken music home and hasn't turned up or just sometimes someone needs multiple parts.
Hey, I was the last person to look into this and while I did look into it thoroughly, I was told it wasn't suitable as SUSU were moving to a more sustainable approach. This is something that is happening across all SUSU buildings, including going cash-free. I want it to be made aware that I did look into it, and while you may - completely fine - think the reasoning wasn't suitable, it was what was given to me and I received no student feedback. If I received feedback, I would have been able to take this further. SUSU and the student population should be a two-way communication approach, and as I did not receive a response, I thought this was fine and closed. While SUSU do not wish to make studying difficult, being unable to print supports a more sustainable approach and allows students to look into alternatives, e.g., using a screen (phone/tablet/laptop).
As someone who runs a society, you should be ensuring that all activities go through GroupsHub, meaning you have an idea of who turns up to the events. I appreciate you run a 'just turn up' approach, but too much printing is, unfortunately, just a disadvantage of that. Also, any additional printing can be recycled/reused - do you use different rehearsal music every session? I'd also recommend the use of paper wallets which can protect paper while travelling, alternatively a folder.
While I recognise I am no longer a Sabbatical Officer and it may not be my place to respond, I really do not appreciate being told my response(s) were not looked into/ were considered 'poor'. I hope this response alleviates your concerns of me not looking into it. Between the time I initially responded on the 13th May 2022, to the time I closed it on the 9th June, I was chasing both SUSU and iSolutions and looking into it - I'll admit, I struggled to get a response from SUSU as things were busy (I no longer have access to the Teams messages, unfortunately). While I was told the contract would end on the 23rd of August 2022, the original poster had enough time by the time I left post (30/06/22) to get in touch and tell me that you did not agree with SUSU's approach to have fewer printers in the spaces. As this submission also came in four months after the contract ended, there was certainly enough time for the original poster to get in contact with SUSU to pre-empt the issue of needing to still print in Building 42.
The original submission: https://www.susu.org/you-make-change/1613