Design, printing and mailing services for students, faculty, and staff at Washington State University can now be found in one centralized location.
Services once offered by WSU’s Biomedical Communications Unit (BCU), which has provided large format printing and other digital printing services to the Pullman campus for more than 30 years, are now offered through WSU’s Design and Printing Services (DPS) unit and CougPrints Plus in the CUB.
BCU began serving the College of Veterinary Medicine in 1948 to meet the medical photography requirement for full accreditation by the early veterinary colleges.
“Everyone on campus is thankful for the decades of great service BCU has provided,” said Edward Sala, assistant executive director of DPS. “When you look at the purpose of the OneWSU initiative, centralizing services to gain efficiencies, just makes sense. Through this consolidation we are creating a design and production facility capable of serving the entire WSU system.”
To assist students, faculty, and staff with the transition, DPS has launched a new storefront that allows easy online ordering. Since its rollout June 14, more than 200 user accounts have been created, including individuals from each of WSU’s campuses, research stations, and Extension offices.
“For many projects, customers can order directly through the storefront,” Sala said. “We’re trying to streamline the ordering process to increase efficiency and improve the overall customer experience.”
In addition to increasing wide format printing capacity, Sala said passport photos, once a service of BCU inside Bustad Hall, will now be provided at CougPrints Plus on the ground floor of the CUB.
“By early August you will be able to walk up and get your passport photos while you wait,” he said.
Sala said since the two university printing shops collaborated often in recent years, the transition has been near seamless.
University departments across the WSU system, including the College of Veterinary Medicine, have custom storefronts for ordering wide format printing, business stationery and promo items, uploading files for printing, and requesting design services. Sala said anyone, especially former BCU customers, who have questions about DPS’ new services or would like a tour of the new online storefront are welcome to contact DPS directly by phone or email.
“There are a lot of benefits to having an in-plant design and printing operation. We take a lot of pride in meeting our customer’s needs, not just in Pullman, but all across the state,” Sala said.
DPS provides full-service printing, direct mail, and graphic design services to the entire WSU system. Printed materials and promo items are delivered via FedEx or inter-campus courier state-wide and directly to offices on the Pullman campus.
