Students will now be able to print from any computer on the TUsecure network.
Wireless printing, which has been in the works since Temple Student Government’s current executive board, BreakThru TU, was voted into office, is now up and running.
The service aims to provide students with more on-campus printings sites and the ability to print directly from personal computers. Director of Information Technology at the TECH Center Gene Mayro said wireless printing took a while to install because there were a number of other time-specific projects workers at the TECH Center have to do, such as setting up for the fall and spring semesters. The amount of coordination required to set it up also prolonged installation. The TECH Center, Mayro said, works with network services, as well as the TECH Center’s vendor in New Zealand that provides the printing software.
“We work with everyone,” Mayro said. “Getting with everyone’s schedule, especially the New Zealand guys, takes a lot of coordination.”
The TECH Center also works alongside TSG Chief of Staff Taylor Whitson, who was put in charge of the wireless printing initiative included as one of BreakThru TU’s campaign initiatives.
Whitson said one of the biggest issues was finding testers in the TECH Center to try out the drivers on the computer and make sure there were no glitches. Prior to launching wireless printing, Whitson said he had made a podcast with step-by-step instructions for testers on how to set up wireless printing for Mac computers and is also for working on instructions for PCs.
“It’s a mildly complicated process,” Whitson said. “There’s a lot of room for error.”
Mayro said while there have been no “unexpected” technical problems, the TECH Center is working out the tweaks of the printing program so students don’t have to worry about them.
“We want as seamless an installation and working environment as we can get,” Mayro said.
Whitson said working with two different operating systems can be difficult. He said that rather than Wifi4Owls, wireless printing will be through Temple’s secure network, TUsecure.
If a computer is not connecting properly to the TUsecure, it will not be able to print.
Students will be able to print anywhere they have connection to TUsecure wireless on campus.
“Everyone puts off printing a paper out until the day of the class,” Whitson said. “People are on Facebook and Twitter. There’s a line to use a computer, and you just don’t have time for that.”
Sophomore biology major Allyson Murray said she has a 15-minute walk to the TECH Center but goes there almost every day to print documents.
“I’d rather be able to print from my computer to the printer and not have to transfer it in an e-mail,” Murray said.
Sasha Houston, a senior biological anthropology major, said although she visits the TECH Center every day she is on campus – for printing and studying purposes – she finds the inability to print from her own computer to be an inconvenience.
Houston added that she might not visit the TECH Center as frequently.
“Last semester, I had a paper I had to print out, and my wireless [Internet system] was broken,” Houston said. “I didn’t have any way of transferring it to a computer [at the TECH Center].”
“It would benefit a lot of students [to have] wireless printing, simply because it will be more convenient,” Houston added.
Cary Carr can be reached at cary.carr@temple.edu.
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