Tragedy Of Commons

Professor Victor Miguel Ponce (2014) defines the Tragedy of the Commons as, “a natural resource shared by many individuals, in the absence of regulation, each individual will have a tendency to exploit the commons to his/her own advantage, typically without limit. Under this state of affairs, the commons is depleted and eventually ruined.” Ashford University is currently facing a “tragedy of commons” that presently affects many students including myself. I believe it has stemmed from the unconscious and careless nature of college students and faculty. However, the existence and magnitude of the problem cannot be overlooked. The dilemma that is articulated is the surplus of printing materials from campus computer labs. I have trouble with the system every other day because printing is needed to turn in assigned course work. Ashford University controls a massive amount of computer labs on campus that are open to all fee-paying students as an service for completing their assignments. These computers aid students by being a resource for people that do not have PCs at home or are held on campus all day and need to use a computer. However, the problem with that is it is more than these two groups that are using the computer …show more content…
Furthermore, it depletes the ability for other students to print and use computer labs especially if they are broken. Therefore it causes themselves and everyone else to face the unpleasant consequences in the long run because nobody has the opportunity to print things whether they are of the essential for assignments or the unnecessary things. Nonetheless, you would think that individuals would cooperate with each other but they fear that the next person will not print accordingly which causes both people to print excessively. As a result, the Tragedy of the Commons comes into