techrecovery | paper thieves!

A minor part of our job (tech support at a college campus, where I'm a senior) is to make sure the dorm printers have paper. One hall is having a problem with paper mysteriously disappearing, and the dorm mom has taken to buying paper because she did not know that she could just call us for more. Seriously: I put a new ream next to a full printer on Thursday, and ALL of it was gone by Monday. The dorm holds maybe 80 students and there were no paper deadlines to my knowledge.

One of my coworkers suggested taping a note to the inside of the paper tray (just inside the lip, where it hopefully wouldn't interact with any machinery) that just said HONOR PRINCIPLE. (Our college is big on the honor principle, although obviously its efficacy varies.) Or maybe STOP STEALING PAPER YOU FUCK.

Short of padlocking the tray or making the poor dorm mom hold onto the extra reams, any ideas?

Also, on my last printer walk, I found half a ream of inkjet paper sitting next to the laser printer. I flipped out and gave a short lecture to the kids in the social room, but I doubt they were responsible. AUGH. Maybe we need signs that warn of how the paper might MELT in the super hot laser printer and gum everything up.

Guys, call us if you're out. And look, there is a REAM OF PAPER RIGHT THERE. USE IT. But don't take it all to your room and, I don't know, use it as rolling paper.