Campus Computing Sites Printing Allocations and Charges

Environment

Campus Computing, Campus Computing Sites, MPrint, Ann Arbor Campus

Issue

When are printing allocations created? When are printing allocations reset? How are printing charges applied? Can I exceed my printing allocation? Can I get a refund?

Resolution

Printing Allocations

• Students, faculty, regular staff, and temporary staff on the Ann Arbor campus generally have their printing allocations reset two full business days prior to the new semester's start date.
  • Use the Registrar's Office academic calendars to see when each academic semester starts.
  • Students currently receive a $24/semester allocation.
  • Faculty, regular staff, and temporary staff receive a $3/semester allocation.
  • If you have multiple affiliations, you can receive an allocation for multiple qualifying affiliations, capped at 1 student allocation and 1 staff allocation.
    • (i.e., an undergraduate student who is hired as a temporary staff member will receive a $27 allocation. A faculty member who also has a staff appointment would only receive a single $3 allocation).
• Affiliations other than student, faculty, regular staff, and temporary staff (i.e., alumni, retiree) will not receive a printing allocation.
  • Only qualifying affiliations with the Ann Arbor campus will receive a printing allocation via MPrint.
  • If you gain a qualifying affiliation mid-semester, you should automatically receive it the day after your account is given the affiliation.
• Unused funds do not "roll over" into the next term's allotment.
• Returning students (enrolled for fall term) will receive a spring/summer allotment regardless of whether they are enrolled for spring and/or summer term.
  • Spring/summer is considered a single semester and only a single allocation is distributed for this combined term.

Check your Account

• You can view your current MPrint balance, recent jobs, and more on the MPrint User Dashboard.
• You can check your transaction and job history on your print account and transaction page.
  • Check your transaction history here to verify you have received your printing allocation for the semester.

Can I exceed my allocation? If so, how do I pay for it?

Student affiliation

• Student affiliations have what is called an "unrestricted account," meaning your account balance is permitted to go negative.
  • Students receive email notifications when your MPrint balance drops below certain thresholds: $6 remaining, $0 remaining, and $50 already charged to student account.
• Any printing charges that drop a student's account into a negative balance will be aggregated and billed to the student's tuition and fees account in Wolverine Access. These charges are not added in real time. At the beginning of each month, all the charges and refunds from the previous month are aggregated and billed to your Wolverine Access account. The date listed in Wolverine Access for printing charges can be misleading, as the date shows when the charge hits the student account, not when the printing was actually done.
  • For example, if a student sees a printing charge in Wolverine Access posted on 05/05/2026, the charge is actually for printing that was done throughout the month of April 2026.
• If you are a student who has exceeded your funding, you will continue to see a negative balance in MPrint until the new Semester Allocation Reset process takes place.

Non-student affiliation

• Non-students have "restricted accounts" that will cut off printing to Campus Computing Sites printers when your balance hits $0.
  • Non-students interested in printing beyond your allocation to Campus Computing Sites printers should continue to the section below titled "Adding Funding to my Account."

Requesting a Refund

• If you do not believe you should have been charged for a given print job, you may request a refund via your print account and transaction page. After logging in to the page, you can click Recent Print Jobs, modify the filter as necessary, and click "Request Refund" for any jobs.
• All refund requests are reviewed by members of the MPrint Engineering team. The job may be refunded in full, partially refunded, or denied in some circumstances.

Adding Funding to my Account

There is no situation in which your semester print allocation will be increased. Printing costs beyond the print allocation will be billed to your student account (if applicable) or will otherwise require an additional funding source.

• Students, faculty, or staff members with access to a University Shortcode who have received approval to use it for printing purposes, can create a MPrint Account to fund additional printing by using the MPrint Accounts tool. Learn more about using the MPrint Accounts tool.
  • Important: Adding Shortcode funding or MPrint Credit Codes after printing has already been done will not offset the charges that have accrued. The added funds merely become available for you to use for future printing.
• Faculty, staff, sponsored affiliates, alumni, retirees, university guests, and students who do not wish to have their printing billed to their Wolverine Access account can supplement their account with MPrint Credits. Learn more about purchasing and redeeming MPrint Credits.
  • Important: Adding Shortcode funding or MPrint Credit Codes after printing has already been done will not offset the charges that have accrued. The added funds merely become available for you to use for future printing
• Alumni, retirees, and university guests may need to register with MPrint prior to purchasing MPrint Credits:
  • Alumni and Retiree MPrint Accounts
  • Guest Printing at University of Michigan Campus Computing Sites

Many faculty, staff, and sponsored affiliates have access to departmental printers that do not require MPrint funds to use. Visit the MPrint Maps page to find a printer near you.

Additional Information

See the Printing Charges page on the ITS website for additional details.

IT Support Staff Notes

• Use the PaperCut admin interface to:
  • View their Transaction History in order to verify If someone did not receive their printing allocation.
    • If the allocation was not given, please escalate the ticket to the ITS-MiWorkspaceEngineeringPrint group.
  • See detailed charges in a user's Transaction History section.
    • You can verify charges to student accounts by setting the filter date range for the month you're interested in, then click on the Export/Print option below the listed transactions > use the CSV file format (green icon). Next, sum all of the credits/debits in the Amount column to give you the total printing charges for the specified month.
    • Refunded print jobs are handled the same way, but they show up in Wolverine Access as a separate line item.
      • When reviewing a student's transaction history, you will want to aggregate the charged total and refunded total separately.

Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.