Teaching the Craft

When Jim Sabulski, manager of Printing and Mailing Services at College Misericordia in Dallas, Pa., asked to bring non-college work in house, he was given the O.K.—as long as the clients were other non-profit institutions. Misericordia lies between two school districts, so Sabulski reached out to them and started bringing in work.

What’s more, Sabulski and one of the school districts are developing a training program in graphic arts for middle and high school students.

“As soon as we start teaching printing, we can apply for grants that help us with equipment or space,” he says. “We also develop potential College Misericordia students. Not only are we teaching them about graphic arts, we can show them the campus and incite a few to enroll here.”

To further spread knowledge of printing, Sabulski is working with an English faculty member to develop a class that would teach students the ins and outs of publishing while allowing them to publish one copy of their own book.

Sabulski and his four full-time employees send most of their mailing to an outside agent, but the shop has also started sending work to a facility for the mentally challenged.

“They take in a lot of repetitive-type tasks,” he says, “and they charge us a pittance compared to the mailing service. They don’t want to profit; they’re happy to get the work.”

Printing Services is housed in a 600-square-foot facility that holds both a Xerox 5252 and a Xerox 4110. Last December, the shop replaced all of the multi-function devices on campus to make them fax, print and scan capable. The shop will soon expand into another location that will feature a loading dock and easier access for customers, in addition to more space.

Even with a small staff, Printing Services gets involved with design and has even replaced its print shop assistant with a production artist.

“With so much more work being digital, we wanted someone on the front end of things,” explains Sabulski.

Printing Services also played a design role while preparing for College Misericordia to change its name to Misericordia University in August 2007.

“You can understand the impact this will have on ordering,” says Sabulski. The college partnered with an outside marketing agency to design the logo, but “they originally designed something with metallic gold. I worked with them to remove that and replace it with a PMS yellow.”

—By W. Eric Martin