The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 25, 2008 Page: 5 of 16
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THE RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY, JANUARY 25,2008
Blair Lounge becomes RMC copy center
By Rachel Carlson
THRESHER STAFF
Hoping to address the short-
comings of the former Rice Kinko's,
a newcopy center will open today in
the Blair Lounge at the Rice Memo-
rial 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 copy-
ing, 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 Docu-
ment Systems Richard Helmey,
and his son Drew Helmey, who is
a graduate student at the Jesse H.
Jones School of Business, and Rice
Business Process Consultant Daniel
Fu. The group evaluated the need
foracopycenterbyusing 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 posi-
tive demand for a copy center was
determined and the Blair Ixtunge
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, acom-
pany that has eight locations within
the University of Houston System,
Houston Community College System
and Rice University. Richard and Drew
Helmey arecooperatingwith Business
Finance Manager Kenneth Stone to
install the copy center at Rice.
The shop will offer a small assort-
ment 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 manage
ment, or the handling of document
demands from faculty and administra-
tion. Huge amounts of paper and copy
materials are processed into handouts,
class texts and administrative docu-
ments by Rice staff each year, Richard
Helmey said.
Stone said Rice's current printing
practices are inefficient because they
vary between buildings. He said hav-
ing 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 purchas-
ing 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 over500small-scale titles
a year. It plans to help professors
publish course packs, textbooks,
and other supplements.
The new copy center aims to
address shor tcomings of the former
Rice Kinko's, which withdrew from
campus lastyear. Stone said Kinko's
obscure location in the downstairs of
the RMC and lack of fleet manage-
ment, marginalized its importance
to the Rice community.
Many students, like Wiess ju-
nior Emelia Perfetti, were unaware
of Kinko's existence.
"1 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.
"Ill probably use the new copy
center fairly frequently, because
the copy machines in the library
are not that convenient for me,"
said Perfetti.
Brown College junior Connie
Foo disagreed. "I never needed
the services of Kinko's," she said.
"If I need posters printed, 111 just
go to the Mudd Lab."
Foo said that she likes the in-
troduction of convenient shops and
services to the Rice campus, but is
wary of too many external compa-
nies entering the Rice campus.
"Overall, I like the growth, as
long as we keep our Rice identity,"
she said.
LOUNGE
From page 1
or not people abide by the rules of the
library, he said. One such rule is that
people must keep their coffee within
the coffee lounge. If there are problems
with spillage and mess, Koffler said the
coffee machine might be removed.
Koffler said Fondren staff are
concerned about people taking
coffee cups around the library, not
cleaning up after themselves and
spilling coffee on tables.
'This is new to let a
library allow student
beverages inside...
there's the danger
of destroying
priceless books.'
Jeff Koffler
Fondren Web Developer
"The librarians think [the coffee
lounge] is a great idea, but there's
the danger of destroying priceless
books," Koffler said.
Though librarians have already
noticed people taking coffee out of the
lounge to the rest of the library, they
are not saying anything about it
"We want to see how students
treat this resource," Koffler said. "If
it turns out to a sticky mess, we're go-
ing to have to make restrictions."
According to Koffler, the ma-
chine had to be refilled within two-
and-a-half hours of its opening on
Wednesday.
"We didn't think there would
be lines of people, but we have had
lines," Koffler said.
Wiess College sophomore Tif-
fany Kim, who sampled free coffee
on Wednesday, said she liked the
concept of a coffee lounge.
"The idea is kind of overdue,"
Kim said. "If anything, you can use
an extra adrenaline push when you're
studying, so it makes a lot of sense
to have a coffee machine."
But Coffeehouse employee
Megan Hermance said the coffee
lounge will not be taking the place
of Coffeehouse any time soon.
'To be honest with you, everyone
I've talked to said [the coffee] is re-
ally bad quality," Hermance, a Baker
College senior, said. "I'm not really
concerned aboutit because everyone
I've talked to said it's awful."
Nonetheless, Brown College
sophomore Tim Faust, also a Coffee-
house employee, said he appreciated
the library's effort to provide late
night-food and beverages.
"It's desperately needed, and
[the coffee lounge is] a step in the
right direction, so I appreciated that
they're making an effort," Faust said.
"I just think that there are other ways
they could have gotten more done in
a better way."
Along with coffee samples this
week, students could fill out com-
ment cards on what the price of coffee
should be and what should be offered
in the vending machines, which will
arrive in about two weeks.
Koffler said people have been vot-
ing for coffee to be $1-1.25 per 12 oz.
cup. However, Koffler said Housing
and Dining will determine the price
after evaluating comments.
Faust suggested that instead
of offering chips and snack food,
macaroni or vegetable soup should
be offered in vending machines.
"But as long as there's love inside,
that's all I care about," he joked.
O ' ; ' ■ ■■ ' . . . . . ; , :
Religion vs. Morality
presented by Ayn Rand scholar
Dr. Andrew Bernstein
Thursday, February 7th
7:30 pm Sewall Hall 309
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Whitfield, Stephen. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 25, 2008, newspaper, January 25, 2008; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443110/m1/5/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.