Friday, January 21, 2005
University of Kansas officials will close KU Printing Services this spring after several years of dwindling business. An exact closing date has not been determined.
Changes in printing technology, primarily through the wide use of electronic printing, have affected the service’s profits, said Marilu Goodyear, vice provost for information services.
KU Printing Services prints forms and documents for the University’s Lawrence campus. The business made $2.5 million in printing jobs last year, a decrease of $500 thousand from three years ago, Goodyear said.
Unfortunately the decision means University employees will lose their jobs. The University has downsized the printing services from 40 employees three years ago to 20.
“My staff is pretty disappointed,” Dennis Smith, print shop manager, said. “They feel like they’ve been let down by the University. They feel like they did all this for nothing.”
Smith said the department of human resources had worked with his employees, but it could be difficult for some because printing jobs are skill-oriented. The employees would have to be re-trained for any new position at the University, especially for those who have been employed for more than 30 years.
He said some employees were so skilled in their specific positions after 30 years that it would be difficult to learn a new skill.
Human resources has worked one-on-one with employees to help them find another job, Goodyear said. Based on their skill level, human resources could place the employees in another University job or help them find another job outside the Lawrence area.
Goodyear said investing in new technology would not be beneficial long-term. The more beneficial motive would be to use commercial printers.
The University would electronically send its forms and documents to the commercial printer, which would then transport the impressions back to the University, Goodyear said.
Smith said outsourcing the printing jobs would not be the most efficient method.
“I don’t know what their logic is behind it, I don’t see it,” he said. “I think over the next few years, they’re going to see a substantial increase in what they already pay.”
Goodyear said the decision to close the printing services, which began in 1902, was strictly an economic-based decision. “Now that we’re so small, trying to run efficiently isn’t going to work and we’re at a point where we would need to use new technology,” she said.
The printing services will remain active until human resources can re-locate as many employees as possible, Goodyear said.
It will also take a while to develop a relationship with the new commercial printing service, she said. That relationship could develop anytime between March and June 30.
Until then, Smith and his two co-workers, which dwindled from nine, will have plenty of work to print for the University, Smith said.
“The small press is busy as it ever was for all I can tell,” he said.
The employees don’t know when they will lose their jobs. But now that school is back in session, he said, the workload has picked up.
Employees await Regents’ decision
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