The American River College library chargers 10 cents to print per piece of paper, however, the health center is handing out three free condoms a day and some of the condoms even come with lube attached.
ARC students can get free condoms from many clinics and hospitals, outside of ARC, but everywhere they go on campus and other places they have to pay for printing. If there was a way students could apply for free printing, they could save plenty of money every semester.
As a college student, it would be nice to know that, on campus, a college education comes before student’s personal life.
The money going to supply condoms in the health center should be going towards supplies in the library, like paper, as it would be more beneficial to students to put money towards learning instead of safe sex.
Condoms available in the health center are all donated and have been for years, but the administration should be doing more to get paper donated because if condoms are available for donation, paper should be too.
It’s understandable that students should be having safe sex and that ARC’s health center wants to support all aspects of a healthy life, but why not support student’s need for printing instead?
If paper costs 10 cents per page to print and a student has five 10 page papers due in a class, students would automatically be paying five dollars just to complete those five assignments.
For the same five dollars you pay to print 50 pages in the library, you can get 500 pieces of paper online.
However, if a student desperately needed an assignment printed for free, they would have no options.
Obviously, paying 10 cents per piece of paper isn’t much, but for a student who has no access to another printer, the money could easily add up and condoms, which are irrelevant to a student’s education, are being handed out for free.
If this is the case, and the library might even get a better deal for buying in bulk, what does the library do with the rest of the money they charged students for printing?
For students who don’t get financial aid or qualify for the B.O.G. fee waiver they already have to worry about paying for books, classes and supplies; printing in the library should not be another expense they have on their plate.
It’s important that students have access to free condoms but it would be so much more valid for college students to have some type of access to free printing as well.
One may not be more important than the other but, when it comes down to it, it’s obvious that free printing would be more beneficial to student success on campus than free condoms.
