A Visit to the University of Portland’s In-plant
As the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP+) conference was winding down last week in Vancouver, Washington, IPI Editor Bob Neubauer and a small group of in-plant managers made the short trip to Portland, Oregon, to tour the University of Portland’s eight-employee Printing and Mailing Services operation. The scenic campus is located up on a bluff in a residential neighborhood overlooking the Willamette River with views of the Portland skyline.
Renee Byrd shows off her shop's HP DesignJet Z6800.
Manager Mary Scroggins and Production Designer Renee Byrd proudly showed off their operation, which featured two Xerox Versant digital presses (a 180 and a 3100 with a Plockmatic Pro 50 bookletmaker), as well as three wide-format printers: two HPs and a Canon imagePROGRAF. The shop uses a Quadient DS-95i for folding and inserting mail. The in-plant sorts and delivers mail to campus locations and offers outgoing USPS and UPS mail and package services.
Scroggins said she and her staff are always looking for ways to make their operation more efficient. They recently rearranged their paper and package storage areas to bring packages closer to the pickup area where students come to retrieve them.
The in-plant prints a variety of items for the 4,000-student campus on its equipment: course packs, exams, lab manuals, programs, business cards, directional signs, and more. Lawn signs printed by the in-plant were visible on lawns all around the 108-acre campus.
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
