🚀 go-pugleaf

> At the Yale School Of Management we are looking at our current system of
> charging a flat computer fee of all graduate students.  At some time in the
> future, we may want to go to a system of charging for
> Printing, Network access, Email etc.  I would be interested in finding out
> what other institutions are planning for the future.
>
> John Kalkbrenner
> Director of Computer Services
> Yale School of Management
> john@som.yale.edu

What an open ended question!
In these times of budget crunches, one has to ask tough questions about
what the bottom-line cost is of a chargeback system.  This includes
realizing Management's human need to twiddle with the specifications of
*any* system they authorize and request.  This includes the cost of
keeping enough (high-cost) talent onboard so such twiddling will
happen fast enough.
The flat rate concept addresses these issues.
The network access cannot be a barrier, as it is simply handled
(especially if all you want is to keep access local) by standard
password/passkey access to workstations or other such appliances.
You don't want to inhibit the free flow of communications?!

What about all that expensive paper and other media?
The flat-rate concept will allow a small percentage to pay for the
few who actually trouble themselves to use a central print station.
It might even allow budgetting together with other departments for
remote print stations and access to such.
Print stations or student monitors can regulate those few "monster"
print jobs within your parameters.
Policy/hardware can route certain print to pay-per-service locations
that are automated or staffed-for-high-quality (like dissertations).
Color printing would certainly go to staffed print stations.
Vend-a-Card services work for many of our laser printers via
a contract service agent.
I guess some serious talk would have to transpire with your
marketing and leaders to make major changes.  I'd recommend
slow, experimental changes.

The above alludes to some our our current solutions.
The future points toward client/server paradigm and we expect more
as industry standards progress toward lower-cost solutions toward
student/staff/public authentication for services.  We are keeping
our ears, eyes, and email open to new ideas.   :-)

Sam Fairchild
Senior Customer Service Support Specialist
Academic Computing Services
The Ohio State University
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