UW Tacoma Copy Center Q&A

A brief sit-down with the Copy Center.

The UW Tacoma Copy Center, located in the bottom of the Mattress Factory on the eastern side of the building, provided an update as to how their current operations have been going, especially with very few staff, students and faculty on campus. Members of the Copy Center briefly explained how they are dealing with COVID, what kind of resources they are still providing and what they want the UWT campus to know about their services.

What do you do at the center? 

We process incoming and outgoing mail for the departments, staff and faculty as well as provide copy and printing services for the campus and surrounding community.

What resources are you still offering students and faculty? 

We continue to offer all our normal processes. Outgoing mail, copies, fax, poster printing etc.

How has the school accommodated the center during COVID? Is there anything you have been asking for that you have not gotten? 

They installed some screens and customer spacing markers. The nature of our area limits what you can do to some extent as well as working around some ADA requirements limited the layout.

What has changed with COVID regarding day to day operations?

Initially we operated under reduced hours but were able to return to full hours. Our print volumes have lowered due to the lack of in person tests and classes but we have seen a slight increase in outgoing mail volume as some items are being shipped to students that would normally be picked up in person.

What do you all wish students and faculty knew? Anything that could make your work easier?

We really appreciate a heads up on larger orders or outgoing jobs. Things can pile up in receiving quite quickly when several large shipments show up on the same day. Equally having all the necessary postage/labeling to send out a large number of boxes isn’t always guaranteed without some prior planning.

How many orders do you get? How many did you all used to before COVID? 

We are currently getting about five print/copy orders a day, which is down quite a lot from normal. However we have gotten in multiple 100-plus item outgoing packages in the mail to get items to students from various departments.