Because Jason Caporrino's homework assignment only took 10 minutes to type on a computer, he didn't plan on spending much longer in the lab. But it took half an hour for his assignment to print out on the dot-matrix printer.

"These dot-matrix printers are unacceptable," said Caporrino (senior-economics). "We need more laser printers. It's really archaic that we only have one laser printer per lab. What are we getting for our computer fee?"

What many students may not know is that only a portion of the funds generated by the $35-per-semester computer fee is spent directly on the computer labs. Out of the approximately $3.8 million fee generated for the 1994-95 academic year, about $1 million was designated specifically for the student microcomputer labs, according to figures compiled by the Computing and Information Systems Committee.

The remainder went towards library computing facilities, support for the University's mainframe system, courseware development and other expenses. Those funds were combined with money from the general University budget.

Although students may use those facilities, some think the computer fee should be used strictly for the computer labs.

"It's bogus that the computer fee is going towards other things," said Dave Berger (senior-business logistics). "That's our money -- it should be spent on our computer labs."

The printers in particular have been a serious concern for some students. "The printers jam a lot," said Pete DiSanto (junior-computer science), who works as a computer lab attendant. "During finals week, they break down up to 10 times a shift."

Jim Kerlin, deputy director of the Center for Academic Computing, said no funds from the computer fee were used to purchase laser printers. Instead, money for the purchase of laser printers comes from a 25 cent-per-page fee that students are charged for using the higher-quality printers.

None of the funds generated by the fee are used solely for faculty, said J. Gary Augustson, executive director of computer and information systems. Most money spent on the computer labs last year went toward new equipment purchases, he said.

"Our top priority is to replace the old equipment with up-to-date models," Augustson said. Many labs were equipped with new computers during the past year.

But the printer situation in the labs reflects poorly on the University, said Mike King, Undergraduate Student Government president.

"Our computer labs are an embarrassment compared with the rest of the Big Ten," said King, who also serves on an advisory board to the CAC. "We need more laser printers, and we shouldn't have to pay 25 cents a copy to use them."

Other Big Ten schools charge less for laser printing. At Ohio State University, students pay only 10 cents per laser copy, while students at Michigan State University pay 8 cents a copy.

Penn State students must pay more for laser copies because the laser printers in the labs are not connected to the main computer network, Kerlin said. Each laser printer is hooked up to its own computer, that students can only use to send material from personal diskettes to the printer, he said. Most computer labs are equipped with one or two laser printers.

King, who made improving the lab printers an issue during his USG presidential campaign, suggested the University adopt a system similar to the University of Michigan's, where students have access to free laser printing.

University of Michigan students are alloted up to 300 laser copies per month at no extra charge, said Andrew Palms, Michigan's manager of computing sites.

Kerlin said the CAC is seriously examining King's proposal.

"We know students are dissatisfied with the current printing situation in the labs," he said.

The University has already bought new laser printers for each lab but does not plan to start installing them before summer, Kerlin said. The CAC is currently developing a system similar to Michigan's, he said.

"We need to figure out how we will connect the laser printers to the network and still be able to prevent some students from abusing their privileges, like using them to make fliers and so on," Kerlin said.

Once the system has been worked out, students will be allotted a set amount of laser copies per month at no extra charge, he said.

Some Big Ten universities, including Michigan and the University of Minnesota, have already eliminated dot-matrix printers from their computer labs.

"Dot-matrix printers are a headache," Palms said. "We got rid of those a while ago."

Minnesota got rid of those printers because they wasted more paper than the laser printers did, said Jamil Jabr, administrative director of computing facilities at the University of Minnesota, adding that the cost per page is also lower for laser printers than dot-matrix.