Move to 1499 Middlesex St. Frees Up Academic Space Across Campus
Image by Ed Brennen
03/17/2017
By Ed Brennen
Increased efficiency, greater convenience and the addition of all-important academic space.
That’s the hat trick of benefits the university will see with the centralization of Office Services’ print centers, mailroom and central receiving stockroom to their new location at 1499 Middlesex St.
Over the past several weeks, Office Services has gradually migrated its operations (and its one dozen employees) to the university’s recently acquired 5,650-square-foot property, located less than a half-mile down Middlesex Street from South Campus. Now that the move is complete, the university community can expect “improved quality and efficiencies,” according to Director of Administrative Services Nick Piscitello.
Faculty, staff and administrators have already begun taking advantage of the new streamlined system for placing and picking up print orders. Those with a job request are encouraged to place their order online through the Print Services Ordering System launched last June. The order, which users can track online, will now be processed and fulfilled at the centralized Print Center and then distributed to newly installed, secure lockers on North Campus (in the Cumnock Hall basement hallway) or South Campus (on the first floor of the O’Leary Learning Commons).
Image by Ed Brennen
Once the order is delivered to a locker at the desired location, the requestor will receive an email (or text message, if preferred) with a barcode that they must bring to a kiosk located at the lockers. When the user scans their barcode at the kiosk, a locker door will open with their requested print job inside — now packaged and protected in 75-gauge shrink wrap.
“This is really expanding the services as to when faculty can pick up their orders,” says Piscitello, who notes that faculty used to have to rush to pick up their orders from the old print centers before they closed at 5 p.m. “Now they can come whenever they like and get their print job.”
According to Office Services manager Scott Merrill, the lockers are already used at schools such as Smith College, Vanderbilt University and the University of Pittsburgh — although not for the delivery of secure print jobs.
“This is a brand new application for how they’re being deployed,” Merrill says.
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Plans call for the vacated print centers on North and South campus, meanwhile, to be converted for academic use. On North, the second-floor space in Kitson Hall will be converted into labs as part of the adjacent Perry Hall renovation project. On South, the basement location in Dugan Hall is being converted into a gallery for the Art Department, complete with a 3D printer.
Piscitello says that by consolidating the print and copy capabilities of the old centers, Office Services can maximize the usage of their three black-and-white Xerox machines and one color machine.
“We’ll have all the horses running together, so we’ll get things done a lot quicker,” he says.
Running at capacity, Merrill says the Print Center can produce 750,000 black-and-white pages and 75,000 color pages per week.
Image by Ed Brennen
With the university mailroom (previously on North Campus) and central receiving stockroom (previously on Pawtucket Boulevard) also moving to 1499 Middlesex St., Merrill foresees a noticeable improvement in overall efficiency.
“It gives us a common launch point for all our courier services,” he says. “By bringing everyone together, it will give us more continuity.”
New North Campus department mailboxes have also been installed in the Cumnock Hall basement hallway, across from the print lockers, and are now in use. Outgoing and intercampus mail can be dropped off at this location. Those with large packages or a bulk mailings are asked to call Office Services (4-2377) to schedule a pick-up.
Print orders can also be dropped off at the print locker locations (with the required form available online), or at the new Print Center location.