During a recent tour of Central Campus for prospective student and parents, tour guide Alex Rienks spent approximately 20% of the tour standing outside of the Fishbowl in Angell Hall explaining how the U-M Information and Technology Services web-based printing service works.
“It’s actually a really cool thing about U of M,” said Rienks, who neglected to include any specific information about the rich and diverse academic programs available to LSA students.
“MPrint lets you print right from your own computer and send the document to any printer on campus. So if you’re running late to class, you can print something in your dorm and pick it up at the UGLi on the way,” Rienks explained to the group of high school juniors and seniors, who will be touring at least six more seemingly identical universities before their graduations in June.
Rienks, neglecting to give the parents and students crucial information about financial aid or housing accommodations, went on to give great details about the plethora of computing sites on campus with both Mac and PC computers available.
“I’m a Mac person myself,” said Rienks, standing in the heart of one of the top public universities in the world. “But I know a lot of people who prefer to use PCs and they’ve never had a problem finding one on campus.”
Rienks reportedly did not finish his tour of one of the country’s foremost research institutions without thoroughly explaining printing quotas for undergraduates.
“LSA students only get 400 pages per semester, but I pretty much never run out,” said Rienks, ignoring the renowned health, tutoring, and religious resource centers just minutes from where he was standing. “Engineering students get over 1,000 prints per semester, so it’s always a good idea to make friends with the engineers just in case.”
As the tour group passed by three libraries, two museums, and 36 fully functional biology and chemistry labs, Rienks clarified that one doubled-sided print does, in fact, count as printing two pages.
