Everyone knows the cost of getting an education keeps going up. About 350 industrious UI students have found a solution to that with jobs in Business Services.

"Students are an important part of what we do - and we're important to them," says Gary Anderson, associate director of Business Services. "They rely on us for income. We rely on them to get the work done." The work is as varied as the departments: from driving buses to rebuilding computers, from scanning records to delivering mail, from binding books to filling orders.

"Our students do a lot of different things," says Pat Mellecker, Maintenance Stores manager. "They stock shelves, fill walk-up and phone orders, and deliver materials."

Students who work at the Document Centers make plenty of copies, as might be expected. They also enter order data, run errands, and help with binding, punching, and shrink wrapping printed materials. At the Wide Media service, a student works at loading and unloading printer paper, assembling printed sheets into construction plan sets, and packaging, processing, and recycling them. The sets, which can be as many as 200 sheets of 48x36-inch paper, make for some sizeable tasks.

While finances are the primary reason most of the students work, there are others. "It's a job related to the field I want to go into," says Nate Smith, a Computer Science major who works at Equipment Rental. He checks returned computers to make sure they are running properly and clears them of information that may be left by the previous users.

There are a number of other computer-related jobs for students working in Business Services. A student employee at Surplus repairs computers, builds working units from parts, helps sell computers, and runs the register during sales hours. Computer Science major Nuo Xu scans volumes of documents at the Printing Department. Some will be posted on the Web and used in the University's hiring process, others are burned onto CDs for space-starved departments. "They want to get rid of their files to make more space in their offices," he says. Printing also employs a student to provide general computer support for the department.

The student employee at UI Laundry Service, Keli Oseguera, works two jobs there: one as a production worker and the other as a custodian.

Natalie Lemon, a junior in Speech Pathology who works at General Stores, enters orders into the database, files, answers phones, and responds to customers' questions. She says she likes the flexibility of her job as well as the income and the work environment. "Any time I can come in, I'm welcome to. It gives me spending money, which I need. It gives me more of a schedule, some structure. I enjoy working here a lot," she says. "I love the people I work with. It's nice to get away from school - it's a different atmosphere."

Driving and making deliveries comprise a good share of the work in several areas. Students at Campus Mail make afternoon mail runs when the regular staff is off, and the Printing Department hires couriers to deliver proofs, color copies, and construction plans.

General Stores hires students to check in, pick, and deliver orders. Casey Scheve, a senior in Management Information Systems, Aaron Schneider, a junior open major, and Jacob Arendt, a recent graduate of the College of Business, have worked there for more than two years, earning grocery, rent, and spending money. They deliver to UI facilities that range from North Liberty to Riverside, Oakdale to Lone Tree.

"It's a nice job. We get to be outside a lot, and the days go by fast," says Schneider. A summer assignment to transport the University's State Fair exhibit gave him, and the others, a change of pace as well as a few stories. Their cargo included not only the usual cases, shelving, flooring, computers, displays, and promotional items, it also included Floyd of Rosedale and Old Capitol's burned-out bell.

Students working in Parking and Transportation number nearly 300. About 100 of them are cashiers in parking facilities. Others coordinate and supervise fellow students, maintain facilities, help motorists, write parking tickets, and perform clerical and other office tasks.

Motor Pool employs students to do office work, shuttle vehicles, pick up parts, and keep the rental fleet clean. Debra Rigel, a student employee and recent graduate of the College of Business, cleans and details vehicles and does office work. "It's a relaxed atmosphere. You can be yourself while getting the work done," she says.

At Cambus, about 150 students are responsible for the system's entire operation. They hire, train, drive, dispatch, evaluate, clean, repair, and supervise. All of them start as drivers (about 75 new ones each year) and are promoted from within.

Regardless of the department or the type of work, here's the common denominator in student employment at Business Services: we value our students. We couldn't do it without them.

MIGS, SIGS - Training for using the General Stores online ordering systems. Contact Judy Rockafellow, General Stores.

Presentations - General Stores, Central Mail, and Printing will make presentations tailored to departments and small groups on request. Contact Lee Vasquez, Chris Kula, or Gary Anderson to schedule a time.

Printing Department on-campus calls - To inform the campus community of the department's capabilities and services. Contact Diane Thomas, customer service representative, at Printing.

Staff development classes
Producing Successful Mail Pieces - October 13, 1-2:30 p.m. Mail piece design, addressing methods, database management. Contact Chris Kula, Central Mail, for more information.

Printing Plus - October 23, 9 a.m.-noon. Overview of the Printing Department and its services. Contact Jenean Arnold, Business Services, for more information.

Introduction to General Stores and Online Ordering - October 29, 10-11:30 a.m. Information about General Stores, MIGS, SIGS. Contact Judy Rockafellow, General Stores, for more information.

The Office of Staff Development will announce registration times for the classes on its website, www.uiowa.edu/~fusstfdv.

Jeff Knock, the newest addition to the Campus Mail team, comes to us from the hospital mail room.

Mary Beth McNabb, UPACS and Copyright Services, facilitates course pack production and processes faculty requests to publishers for permission to use copyrighted materials. Formerly she worked at Moore Business Forms, an Iowa City printing company.

Dagong Wang, systems administrator and systems programmer for departments in the Mossman Building, is also an MBA student at UI. Originally from Harbin, in the extreme northeast part of China, he says "It's winter half the year there - so I feel pretty warm now!" He previously worked for a manufacturing company in Davenport.

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Immediate savings were realized at UNI. "Fiscal year '03 savings to UNI were in excess of $172,000," says Central Mail manager Chris Kula, who proposed the partnership.

During the next year, departments at both schools may spend less money sending bulk mail, depending on what services they use. Many set-up and other processing fees for bulk mail were reduced for fiscal year '04, a move made possible in part through the UI-UNI partnership. The new fees are posted on Central Mail's website at www.uiowa.edu/~fuscmail/cost/msvcfees.htm.

"Increased volume from UNI, along with heavy volume from UI, has allowed us to spread overhead costs over a greater volume of mail, saving departments at both universities a great deal of money," says Kula. Look for more new ideas and more savings to come. Kula continues to examine mail entry into SCF facilities for additional postage savings. And he and his staff continue to work with customers on improving their address files and the readability of their outgoing mail - the surest, quickest, easiest way to save money on mailing. The following article lists ways to improve the readability of your mail.

Automated mail processing machines (Optical Character Readers, or OCRs) read addresses on mail pieces from the bottom up and will first look for a city, state, and ZIP Code. The OCRs will then look for the delivery address. If the OCRs cannot find either line, then your mail piece could be delayed or misrouted. Any information below the delivery address line (a logo, a slogan, or an attention line) could confuse the machines and misdirect your mail.

Use the following guidelines to address mail pieces:

• Always put the address and the postage on the same side of your mail piece.
• Place the address parallel to the longest edge on a letter.
• Use all capital letters, no punctuation, and at least 10-point type.
• Type one space between the city and state, two spaces between state and ZIP code.
• Use simple fonts, with the type left-justified.
• Print in black ink on white or light paper.
• Do not reverse the type (white printing on a black background).
• If your address appears inside a window, make sure there is at least 1/8-inch clearance around the address. Sometimes parts of an address slip out of view behind the window, then mail processing machines can't read the address.
• If you are using address labels, make sure you don't cut off any important information. Also make sure your labels are on straight. Mail processing machines have trouble reading crooked or slanted information.

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What makes the University of Iowa garment rental program special compared to a private sector, for-profit laundry? It is the way we work with a customer.

• We work with the customer to select garments that suit their specific needs and their desire to promote a positive image of their staff.
• We take a flexible approach to serving our customers by allowing the customer to choose the colors, styles, fabrics, and number of garments per employee as they desire.
• We offer a larger selection of products and don't restrict a customer to a specific line of products.
• We work with our customers to establish a service schedule that is compatible with their employees' work schedules and physical work locations.
• We do not require a signed contract for a specific length of time or specific service options.

At the UI Laundry Service, our pricing is competitive. We include all garment service costs in our weekly charge rate. Our customers don't have add-on charges for refitting uniforms, restocking garments, or making adjustments to their service program.

Our strategy is to provide outstanding uniform service for our customers. We do all of these things because we want satisfied customers. For more information about our garment rental program, call our office at 335-4940 and ask for Dave Gray.
Jo Anne Worley

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The University of Iowa awarded a contract for remanufactured toner and inkjet cartridges to Cirrus Imaging Supply Corp. of Iowa City. The company has supplied the University's recycled cartridges for about one-and-one-half years. Many departments have tried the cartridges with great success. Buying them is a tremendous way to save your department money. (See related article in the last issue of Into Print.)

Cirrus fully guarantees the cartridges: if you receive a defective one, a company representative will come to your department and replace it on the same day. If you try a cartridge and it doesn't work out, you'll receive a refund.

The cartridges are available through General Stores' SIGS inventory. We hope to include more cartridges in the near future. Call Judy Rockafellow, 384-3906, for more information.
Judy Rockafellow

Recycled toner cartridges prices and order number equivalents.

Note: The correct dates for Winter 2003-04 and Spring 2004 early registration are November 17-21 and December 1-9 respectively. The information in the November 13 block of the calendar is incorrect.

Corporate Express catalogs
Use stock number CEI20043 to order a 2003 Corporate Express Catalog, or, you may call and we'll send you one.

General Stores stock list
General Stores stock lists are available on request.

Contact General Stores at 384-3900, or judy-rockafellow@uiowa.edu, if you have questions about any of the preceding items.

Herd books
The University Directory (herd book) is usually available in October. General Stores will e-mail ordering instructions as soon as they arrive. We will not take early orders for them.

Printing Department wall calendars
These will be available in November. Check the next issue of Into Print or the Printing Department website for ordering information.

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The intent is to increase turnover and provide more capacity in the ramps for visitors and those who have business in the nearby facilities. Activity will be monitored closely and further operational, policy, and physical changes may be implemented in order to improve access and capacity in this area of campus. Parking Services is working with units in the areas to assure that visitors and customers are accommodated.
Brian McClatchey

Improvements are completed and landscaping is under way at Lot 27, and the improvement and expansion of the northwest section of Lot 43 is nearly complete. Asphalt maintenance work was completed on Lots 11 and 13. A new lot, 64, has been completed, and landscaping is under way. The new access road for Finkbine lot is under construction and should be completed this winter. Lot 9 was decommissioned in July to make way for the Honors Center.

At the parking ramps, significant maintenance has been completed on II, planning and design of an expansion is continuing for IV, and a routine inspection found failures with high-tension support cables in Ramp I (see the following article).
Brian McClatchey

Evaluations at this point indicate that it may be possible to complete repairs before the end of the year. In the meantime, Parking and Transportation has been monitoring its other facilities and working closely with the hospital in an effort to insure that there is parking available for the first priority users - patients and visitors.
Brian McClatchey

Everyone is familiar with the big yellow buses that traverse the campus but relatively few are familiar with the staffing and level of services that Cambus provides. Operating from 4:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays), Cambus is relied upon for much more than just a ride to class. This past year was a good year as service and fleet expansions contributed to a more than 5 percent increase in ridership.

Cambus is, and always has been, a student-operated service - students hire, train, drive, dispatch, evaluate, clean, repair, and supervise. The manager and four maintenance staff are the only full-time employees of the system. Universities commonly supplement the transit workforce with student employees. However, The University of Iowa-Cambus is almost alone in the extent to which it utilizes students.

In fiscal year 2003 the Cambus system...

• gave more than 3.5 million rides (of the nearly 5 million bus rides given locally),
• traveled 725,000 miles,
• logged 70,000 service hours,
• with a fleet size of 32 buses,
• a budget of $1.9 million,
• and a workforce of 150 student employees
• who earned about $1.1 million.

How many people can fit on a Cambus?
About 90 (more requires some squeezing!).

How much does a new, big bus cost?
Today it's about $270,000; 80 percent of the purchase price comes from federal grants.

Why are students willing to take on the challenge of driving a 14-ton bus?
Schedule flexibility, wages, advancement opportunities, social environment, experience, and fun, as well as the value of the service Cambus provides.
Brian McClatchey

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When you are ready to order a course pack, send the assembled materials, a requisition or an m-number, and our completed forms (order form, affadavit of copyright, and, if you use copyrighted material, bibliography information sheet). The forms are available at the new UPACS office and will be posted on the Web under the Printing Department's UPACS page, listed below.

For more information, refer to the Web pages listed below or contact Mary Beth McNabb, at the UPACS office, or Document Services manager Marge Kline, 384-3717.

The new address and contact information are

UPACS and Copyright Services
208 Iowa House, IMU
Phone: 335-3410, e-mail: upacs-printing@uiowa.edu

Copyright clearance information: www.uiowa.edu/~printsvc/docsvcs/upacs/copyright.html

UPACS information: www.uiowa.edu/~printsvc/docsvcs/upacs.html

People who use the printers will now be charged for what they print, a practice which is new at the Libraries but already in place at the Information Technology Centers. Document Services manager Marge Kline says the charge will help cover the cost of upgrades and maintenance.

"Other major factors in making this change are the need to provide better service and equipment, and the need to reduce the volume of paper waste that occurs under the current system," says Kline.

The new system will be easy to use. An individual sends a document from a library work station to a print release station, goes to the release station to view the quantity requested and the cost of printing, either releases the job to the printer or changes the quantity before releasing the job, and then pays for the printing at a vending station.

The vending station accepts charges to HawkID (for UI students, staff, and faculty), or bills and coins. The cost is the same as at the ITCs, five cents per page for black-and-white and fifty cents for color.

"The change will allow the two departments to focus on their areas of expertise: the libraries on information delivery and Document Services on document delivery," says Nancy Baker, director of the University Libraries.

Library locations that have switched to the new system are Main Library, including Reference, Government Documents, Media Services, and Maps, and the Art, Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Geoscience, Math, Music, Physics, and Psychology branch libraries.

Contact Kline at 384-3717, marjorie-kline@uiowa.edu, or Larry Woods, Information Technology director for the Libraries, at 335-5867, larry-woods@uiowa.edu, for more information.

The Centers stock binders, report covers with a reusable binding, note cards, envelopes, and trifold brochures that are preprinted with the dome logo and wordmark and have space for customers to add their own departmental information.

One style of brochure and the report covers are printed in gold and black. The other items are printed in black ink only, with the note cards also displaying a gold embossed dome. The Document Centers will print additional information on the items for you, or you may print your own material.

The brochures are sold in packages of 100, the note cards and envelopes in packages of 25, and the binders and covers singly. They are available at the Boyd Law, IMU, Mossman, Med Labs, and PBB Document Centers.

The University's graphic identity website gives futher description of the various options.

Sanda likes everything about her job, especially her colleagues, she says. A typical day might include updating the contractor database, helping customers, taking phone messages, and preparing sets of plans (drilling, loading machines, and packaging and addressing sets for mailing). She is also trained as a backup to take in, download, and print new jobs.

She has come a long way in a short time: from being a college student in Romania to a full-time UI employee who meets deadlines, customers, colleagues, and hard work with equanimity, in just two-and-one-half years. It's the realization of a lifelong goal.

"I had always wanted to come to America, since I was a kid," she says. "I wanted to do something different from the others. When this opportunity came, it was too good to be true!"

Sanda grew up in Zalau, a town in the Carpathian mountains that is smaller in area but larger in population than Iowa City, and attended college in the city of Cluj. She says that sometimes she misses its big-city atmosphere, and that's when she heads for Chicago to visit Shedd aquarium, Sears tower, museums, the zoo, European markets, and, of course, the restaurants. She loves Chinese and Mexican foods, which she first tasted after coming to the U.S. "I have gotten very used to American food. I'll miss it when I go back to Romania to visit," she says.

This summer Sanda bought a home in Iowa City, but she wants to do more. "One of my goals is to go back to school. In Romania I was so determined, I wanted to study English. Now that I have English in my daily life, I will probably go into something else - maybe business," she says. "Everyone says, 'Wow, you're twenty-four years old. You have a great job. What more do you want?'"

"....a Mercedes?" she says with a grin. "They tell me I'll have to go back to school for that! It seems that in life, as much as you have, there's always some new thing you can have as a goal."

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Story ideas: Are there topics we haven't covered that you would like to see in our newsletter? Do you have questions you would like us to address? Send an e-mail to jenean-arnold@uiowa.edu or a memo to Into Print,126C MBSB.

Address corrections and additions: If you wish to be added to the Into Print mailing list, fill out and send our form or e-mail the following information [University of Iowa campus addresses and @uiowa.edu e-mail suffixes only] to jenean-arnold@uiowa.edu:

• Your name
• Department
• Campus Mail address
• whether you want the print version, e-mail notification of Web posting, or both.

E-mail us: Send questions and comments about departmental topics to:

Bionic Bus . . . bionic-bus@uiowa.edu
Cambus information . . . cambus-dispatching@uiowa.edu
Central Mail . . . central-mail@uiowa.edu
Commuter programs . . . commuter-programs@uiowa.edu
General Stores . . . genstores@uiowa.edu
Motor Pool . . . motor-pool@uiowa.edu
Parking facilities operations . . . facilities-dispatch@uiowa.edu
Parking services . . . parking-office@uiowa.edu
Wide Media Center . . . widemedia-printing@uiowa.edu

Copy Centers:
Boyd Law . . . dcblb-printing@uiowa.edu
Hardin Library . . . dchlhs-printing@uiowa.edu
Iowa Memorial Union . . . dcimu-printing@uiowa.edu
Med Labs . . . dcml-printing@uiowa.edu
Mossman Building . . . dcmbsb-printing@uiowa.edu
Pappajohn Bldg . . . dcpbb-printing@uiowa.edu
UPACS and Copyright Service . . . upacs-printing@uiowa.edu