Starting in Fall 2013, Colgate’s Information Technology Services (ITS) will implement wireless printing from student devices in three buildings: Case-Geyer Library, the O’Connor Campus Center (Coop) Lab and Cooley Science Library. Chief Information Officer Kevin Lynch said the wireless printing option will be tested with student workers during the summer to facilitate a smooth transition in the Fall.

Colgate University students can expect to be less tethered to workstations around campus.

Lynch noted that there has been a strong desire among faculty and students for an option to print remotely from laptops to public access printers. The Student Government Assoication (SGA) has also spearheaded this initiative requesting that ITS make it a priority. ITS will fund as well as execute the project.

SGA president senior Matthew Ford described the importance that wireless printing has taken on for the technology coordinators.

“In addition to freeing up the desktop computers in the libraries and the Coop, the convenience that could be extended to students is well worth the effort,” Ford said. “The school’s wireless network is set up for it, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish now that the ITS department is focused on it.”

Whereas students presently must log on to a specified University computer and retrieve their own documents in order to print a job, students in the Fall will be able to print from their seat in any of the aforementioned locations.

Lynch said that the wireless printing option had not come to fruition earlier because of technical barriers.

“There have been some issues managing and supporting the wide variety of devices on an enterprise network,” Lynch said. “We also had some concerns regarding authentication for print use which have now been resolved.”  ITS will take a few steps to make wireless printing feasible on campus. Lynch detailed two essential steps for the ITS staff.

“We will leverage already licensed software, Papercut, to enable a web printing gateway,” Lynch said. “We will then need to develop documentation and train our staff and student workers to support and assist students with wireless printing.”

In addition to enabling wireless printing, Ford said the student body should also anticipate some environmentally-friendly changes to the printing system that will be announced in conjunction with the wireless move.

“Our unnecessary paper waste is currently extreme, and we’re taking steps to improve it,” Ford said.

Contact Hannah Fuchs at

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*Correction: this article was originally titled “Wireless Printing Set to Take Place Fall 2014.” The switch will, in fact, be made next fall.