SUNY Managed Print Initiative Roll-out FAQ

In 2019 SUNY conducted a comprehensive assessment of the campuses print landscape (print devices, print volume and type, and existing campus managed print contracts) which revealed that SUNY prints more than 50 million pages a month, and possesses more than 40,000 devices, of which approximately 50% are personal or desktop printers. The analysis, conducted by an independent print consultant (Pharos), also determined that SUNY spends approximately $50M per year on printing with color printing accounting for more than 50% of the cost. As a result of this assessment, SUNY established the System-wide Print Resource Use Policy – an initiative that seeks to reduce printing across all SUNY campuses. 

The goals of the SUNY Management Print Initiative is to establish campus goals to reduce the amount of printing and number of printers, but also establish system-wide print defaults and standards; limit printing to items essential for academic instruction or required to perform and complete business needs; achieve sustainability goals to reduce the college’s paper, energy use and carbon footprint; deploy software to monitor usage by individual, application, department, and device; and have campuses centralize their print budgets. The goals are to reduce costs, increase operational efficiencies, and implement secure and sustainable printing practices. Check out the full SUNY Presentation. 

All SUNY campuses are required to participate in the SUNY Managed Print Initiative and demonstrate compliance with the System-wide Print Resource Use Policy. 

In tandem with SUNY’s Print Initiative, SUNY Fredonia will be moving forward with its own initiative on campus where employees will be active participants in the effort to “print smart and print less.” The project, to continue to be led by the Information Technology Services department, began in 2021 and consisted of two phases aimed at achieving print efficiency, optimization and meeting sustainability goals by Summer 2025.

Phase I of the project began in the spring of 2021 when IT started to collect printing data to better understand our current fleet of printer hardware and usage. In partnership with our vendor Toshiba, we analyzed the current print environment and determined the age of equipment, types of printers (local versus network), printer utilization and printer locations.  

We are now embarking on Phase II of the project beginning this fall, where we will be working with employees and departments to ensure effective print options while reducing the number of campus printers. Effective solutions will be implemented to move tasks to digital workflows, reducing the need for printing. Per SUNY, USB printers and single-function color printers will be removed, with printers older than seven years removed or replaced. While the print fleet is being reduced, we are working with departments to migrate them over to a new print management solution and training all users. We anticipate the project to be completed by the end of spring 2025.

SUNY Fredonia is rolling out "FREDprint" in response to the SUNY Managed Print Initiative.

We will be focusing on Faculty/Staff printing at first, so as to ensure continuity of access for student printing in the labs and library. During this first portion, SUNY Fredonia will be working with Toshiba to determine equitable distribution and access to shared devices, while implementing secure pull-printing (tap your card at the printer to release). Once this has been implemented by building, additional printers will be decommissioned.

Once the campus has worked through the Faculty/Staff printing, we will implement the same style of process for our lab and library based printing, tying it into the same system as will be utilized for the Faculty/Staff printing.

Once the configuration of printers in a location has been completed, one printer queue will be deployed to all State-owned devices, allowing simplified printing by allowing a user to only have one location to print to, but having the flexibility to actually release the print at any device, giving true portability across campus.

As part of the implementation, all existing and future state owned printers and multifunctional devices will be under the custodianship of the Information Technology Services department. Departments will no longer be responsible for purchasing printers or multifunctional devices as this will fall under the responsibility of the Information Technology Services department.

Departments will no longer be responsible for purchasing printers or multifunctional devices as this will fall under the responsibility of the Information Technology Services department. Departments simply need to contact the IT Service Delivery by emailing (help@fredonia.edu) or calling 716-673-4357 (HELP) for assistance.

There are three printers that are approved for purchase under the SUNY Managed Print Initiative. All three are sold and serviced by Toshiba going forward.

1. Black and White Single Function Printer - HP LaserJet E60165dn

2. Black and White Multi Function Printer - HP LaserJet E62665hs

3. Color Multi Function Printer - Toshiba e6525AC

For more details, please see the Approved Printers on Toshiba Contract. 

All of these printers can have various accessories purchased, allowing for configurations to meet operational needs.

The new printers use a cloud-based universal print driver. You no longer have to install printers onto your device or select a specific printer you want to send a print job to. You can walk up to any of the new printers to get your printout. The new printers use Secure Print Release (see the video for more information) to ensure the privacy of sensitive materials. Please note that this video is generally accurate and provided by the vendor for all SUNYs. An updated version will be posted soon.

Your job will not come out until you arrive at a printer and touch your FREDCard to the RFID reader on the device to release the printout. Additionally, an app is available for mobile devices where you can scan a QR Code at the device to release your print job.  The mobile app is available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store and is called “Pharos Secure Release” the icon is a gray circle with a torch. (Warning- DO NOT choose the app called “Pharos Print”!) 

Devices are centrally located, typically one per floor per building, to better serve our community. The location of these devices were determined after an in-depth study by a SUNY print consultant. The devices are multi-function units equipped with printing, scanning, and a host of other features. A complete list of printer locations can be found on the IT website by following this link: (coming soon). The locations are designed to be as publicly accessible as possible for all members of the campus community.  Please do not take it upon yourselves to move these printers. 

After the full implementation of the project has been completed, tentatively by the end of the summer of 2025, any current faculty, staff, or student may use any device in any location.  If you have a device in your area and someone requests to print, please allow access to the unit. 

Departments no longer need to order toner for regular administrative office printing. The new printers automatically “phone-home” to order toner and maintenance items when needed, and they will be delivered to the IT Service Center, who will handle replacement.  IT through Central Receiving will coordinate supply of standard office paper in 8.5 x 11” and 11 x 17” sizes and will manage paper ordering for each print device on campus.  Each area will have a designated office for paper management.  When paper supplies are needed, please email IT Supplies and paper will be ordered.  ONLY the designated offices will be able to submit requests.  The IT Service Center will keep paper on hand for evening or emergency needs. Please note that IT does not supply pre-printed letterhead or high-quality bonded stock that might be needed for certain jobs. If you need to print on letterhead, you should add your department’s letterhead to the tray before releasing the print job. 

In the event of significant paper jams or other errors occurring with a printer, please contact the IT Service Center for assistance by emailing (help@fredonia.edu) or calling 716-673-4357 (HELP) for assistance. Then go to the next closest printer unit and print out your jobs.

There will be no print allocations or quotas for college employees. IT will use the Pharos Print Dashboard to monitor and review print usage and will share usage reports with department managers upon request. All print use will be tracked, monitored, and reported by user, by department, by page count, and by type (color vs b/w, single vs double-sided). Significant anomalies will be reviewed and may be brought to unit management attention. But you can and should print what you need to print for College business.  Students will have the same quota system as they have had in the past.

Yes! A web portal will be available and require you to sign in using your Fredonia eServices account. You will then follow the instructions to upload your document and will be waiting for you at the device like any other job sent. For cell phones, if you have the Microsoft OneDrive app and the Pharos Secure Release app installed on your device, you can open the document on your phone and click “Print” just like you would from a computer. The Pharos Secure Release app will open, in the upper left corner click on “Secure Printer” and then in the dropdown menu choose the “Secure Printer” option with the printer icon next to it. Then your document will be sent to your Pharos account to print from any device you choose. 

Some of the new printers are color capable and are noted on the locations page (coming soon). During the multi-year audit phase, SUNY consultants analyzed our printing patterns and print volume. This data was used to determine the locations of the devices to consolidate and centralize the new color capable units.

It will no longer be necessary to have any assigned printer and you are no longer restricted to printing to particular devices. As part of the SUNY Managed Print Initiative, the secure print configuration will allow for any user to print from any State-owned computer and release at any printer on campus, through tapping their FREDcard or logging in directly, that is configured for the SUNY Managed Print Initiative. Ultimately, all non-specialty printers will be configured for usage within this system.

As part of the design process, SUNY Fredonia and Toshiba will be taking into account how to ensure that printers reside in accessible spaces. When not possible, we will work with the departments to facilitate secured entry to the location of the printers.

As part of the SUNY Managed Printer Initiative implementation, almost all printers and multifunctional devices will be equipped with a card reader to permit users to use their FREDcard to release their print jobs at a secured shared printer or multifunctional device.

1. Exceptions to this procedure will be rare and only in situations that involve critical business needs or legal requirements (e.g., Federal or State regulations, Americans with Disabilities Act).

2. Exceptions will be granted on a case-by-case basis and will require for a critical business need:

   1. a business case justification;

   2. authorization from the requesting President or designee (Vice President); and

   3. approval from the Managed Print Services Task Force.

3. for a legal requirement:

   1.  written confirmation from campus counsel; or

   2.  written confirmation from campus ADA coordinator.

   3. When legal regulations or protocols require exceptions to this procedure, employees are authorized to override the default printing and document settings (e.g., single-sided printing and copying). Confidentiality, because of the availability of private/secure print features, or convenience are not valid reasons for the need of a local desktop printer. 

All requests for exceptions need to be submitted by creating a Tracker Ticket or emailing (help@fredonia.edu).

1. Assignments and handouts can be distributed through Email, Web and FREDLearn. Encourage students to turn in assignments and papers electronically through Email or Brightspace

2. When documents are distributed electronically, there are no more lost handouts or assignments. Students will always have access to a digital version. Every course has a Brightspace space.

3. Use the Comments function or change-tracker to do electronic markup of student work instead of a red pen on paper.

The SUNY Print Initiative covers all documents printed in standard sizes (letter, legal, and tabloid.) The SUNY Print Initiative does not cover specialty printing – which is explicitly defined as “label printers, barcode printers, wide-format (plotters), or 3d printing.” The SUNY Initiative also does not address creative printing - where the printed artifact is an essential curricular requirement - Graphic Design being one obvious example.

We will need to “explicitly identify, acknowledge, and protect students’ access to specialty printing of studio artworks necessary to fulfill their curricular work and degree requirements” as our faculty suggest. IT will continue to assist and support specialty printers used for academic purposes however, departments will remain responsible for funding these specialty printers and their supplies.

Student printing in labs and other areas will be incorporated into this new system during the summer of 2025. 

Our University's Strategic Plan calls for renewed emphasis on inclusivity and accessibility. Electronic documents can be made accessible to the visually impaired, paper documents cannot. If you do end up distributing a paper document, you also need to make an electronic version available for the visually impaired.

1. Handouts for meetings can be shared online through Google, Zoom, OneDrive, Sharepoint, and MS Teams. Email is a last option for sharing documents (but still better than printing). 

2. All SUNY Fredonia Committees, Task Forces and Departments should use their M Drives or SharePoint to securely store, share, and collaborate using electronic documents. Committees and workgroups documenting their agendas, meeting notes, procedures, and annual reports in SharePoint also promotes transparency and participation – and provides an invaluable archive for periodic accreditation reviews like Middle States and for Strategic Planning efforts.

We encourage everyone to continue using electronic documents wherever possible, and to only print things that must be on paper. For example, legal contracts must be signed with a wet ink signature by a campus signing authority.

The Print Management system tracks print usage, and usage reports will be circulated to department heads. Contracted rates will depend on the model of printer used. Emeritus office printing will be charged to the department of record.

As part of the SUNY Managed Print Initiative, Faculty/Staff/Emeritus will no longer receive quota within the existing PaperCut lab/library printing system. This is a requirement so that all office printing is properly tracked within the Pharos system.

Student quotas for the 24/25 Academic Year will remain $20 per semester. Future student quota will be determined as we proceed with the SUNY Managed Print Initiative. Quantity of prints will be comparable to the $20 within PaperCut.

Desktop printers are convenient, but they are the most expensive way to print, costing about $0.50 or more per single-sided page. In contrast, SUNY’s goal for Multi-function printers in the new contract is $0.01 per B/W double-sided page. Due to that dramatic difference, the SUNY Initiative calls for the elimination of all desktop printers (there will be Accessibility Waivers for those with mobility issues). At the time of implementation, the department will no longer be permitted to order any more consumables (e.g. toner cartridges) for desktop printers 

1. Submit a Tracker ticket to obtain access to departmental networked printers.

   1. Please include Full name, Building, Room, Current Locally Attached Printer Location and Location of any supplies, Preferred Networked Printer Locations, and any accessibility requirements relative to the networked printer location.

2. IT will provide the user access to the nearest networked black/white and color networked printers within the department for secure printing. All networked printers need to be located accordingly per SUNY Procedure 6903:

   1. No closer than 275 feet from each other for mono devices and

   2. No closer than 900 feet from each other for color devices. 

      1. NOTE: if a department needs a printer for employees in different buildings or further from the above distances from their nearest departmental networked printer then IT will provide them with a printer.