Blair Lounge becomes RMC copy center
Hoping to address the shortcomings of the former Rice Kinko’s, a new copy center will open today in the Blair Lounge at the Rice Memorial Center. The new copy center will have two major functions: to offer basic copy services to the Rice student body and to streamline printing and publishing activities of faculty and administration.
The center will have color copying, high-speed black and white copying, poster and sign printing, and binding and finishing options. The copy center will also offer shipping and packing via USPS, FedEx and DHL. Customers will also be able to submit custom requests to the copy center online Director of Campus Development for University Copy Center Drew Helmey said.
The process of installing a new copy center in the RMC began last May. After Kinko’s left, Stone met with President of Campus Document Systems Richard Helmey, and his son Drew Helmey, who graduated with an MBA, and Rice Business Process Consultant Daniel Fu. The group evaluated the need for a copy center by using software to track the paper volume used around campus. They also examined the printing purchases from faculty and administration and evaluated the past activities of Kinko’s. A positive demand for a copy center was determined and the Blair Lounge was selected as a location.
The copy center will use its own employees, but may hire students for part-time jobs during surge seasons of copying and printing (i.e. back-to-school or finals periods), Drew Helmey said.
The shop will be a satellite of University Copy Center, a subsidiary of Campus Document Systems, a company that has eight locations within the University of Houston System, Houston Community College System and Rice University. Richard and Drew Helmey are cooperating with Business Finance Manager Kenneth Stone to install the copy center at Rice.
The shop will offer a small assortment of office supplies, but Richard Helmey said he does not seek to compete with the Rice University Bookstore.
“We don’t want to duplicate items already provided,” he said.
Another facet of University Copy Center services will be fleet management, or the handling of document demands from faculty and administration. Huge amounts of paper and copy materials are processed into handouts, class texts and administrative documents by Rice staff each year, Richard Helmey said.
Stone said Rice’s current printing practices are inefficient because they vary between buildings. He said having a single provider of these services will regulate Rice printing, reducing operational costs.
The copy center’s agenda for fleet management, organization of the vehicles it operates, is extensive. The shop will assist in the purchasing of university printing supplies and also format, bind and publish course packs for professors. The center will also produce live manuals and out-of-print texts, and perform custom publishing and copyright management, Helmey said.
Currently, University Copy Center publishes over 500 small-scale titles a year. It plans to help professors publish course packs, textbooks, and other supplements.
The new copy center aims to address shortcomings of the former Rice Kinko’s, which withdrew from campus last year. Stone said Kinko’s obscure location in the downstairs of the RMC and lack of fleet management, marginalized its importance to the Rice community.
Many students, like Wiess junior Emelia Perfetti, were unaware of Kinko’s existence.
“I didn’t really know that Kinko’s was there until I heard about it leaving,” she said.
Kinkos moved to the basement from Blair Lounge in 2000.
University Copy Center should not suffer from Kinko’s problems because of its fleet management services and better location in the Blair Lounge, a former conference room that is located next to the RMC information desk.
Perfetti said she thinks the new copy center will get more use.
“I’ll probably use the new copy center fairly frequently, because the copy machines in the library are not that convenient for me,” said Perfetti.
Brown Junior Connie Foo disagreed. “I never needed the services of Kinko’s,” he said. “If I need posters printed, I’ll just go to the Mudd Lab.”
Foo said that she likes the introduction of convenient shops and services to the Rice campus, but is wary of too many external companies entering the Rice campus.
“Overall, I like the growth, as long as we keep our Rice identity,” she said.
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