WCU Stories      January 31, 2019

Western Carolina University’s Division of Information Technology will soon embark on a schedule to replace and upgrade all printers on the Cullowhee campus and at the Catamount School, Biltmore Park instructional site, Cherokee Center and Small Business and Technology Development Center in Asheville, with an expected project completion by mid-March.

“This project enables us to replace all devices with the latest technology, lay the groundwork for adding new features, and do so without raising our current printing costs,” said Daniel J. Berk, WCU’s IT director of applications and systems. “The project team communicated extensively across campus, through multiple venues and surveys, to incorporate all requested functionality in our new printer fleet.”

Printers currently in use are more than 10 years old. The replacement printers will have new features, including the capability to scan to OneDrive, an enhanced “print from anywhere” capacity and replacement of the magnetic strip reader with card sensing technology. The new printers also will allow future potential uses, such as desktop fax messaging, mobile printing and credit card payment.

The project will entail swapping 231 devices in a daily workload by eight Ricoh and WCU technicians, with a delivery vehicle from Charlotte to bring new printers and take away the discarded ones each weekday for six weeks.

On Friday, Feb. 1, pawprint.wcu.edu will be updated to include all new printer information, including user information for both Apple and Windows operating systems. IT staff will work with Ricoh staff to make sure the transition goes quickly and smoothly, said Craig Fowler, WCU’s IT chief information officer.

The first week rollout, by location, is:

• Monday, Feb. 4: warehouse, water plant, steam plant, facilities management, Old Student Union, Chancellor’s Residence
• Tuesday, Feb. 5: Natural Sciences Building, McKee Building.
• Wednesday, Feb. 6: Stillwell Building.
• Thursday, Feb. 7: Bird Building, Brown Hall.
• Friday, Feb. 8: Forsyth Buildling.

To see a complete rollout schedule, go to pawprintchanges.wcu.edu. For more information, contact the IT Help Desk at 828-227-7487.