For 10 years, Colvard Student Union Director Eddie Keith said he received requests from students for an on-campus copy center. The new UPS store, which opened Monday in the Union, offers a solution.
Michael Chambliss, owner, said UPS charges 10 cents a page for black and white copying. For more than 24 copies, the price is reduced to 8 cents. It offers color copying for 44 cents a page. Students can also e-mail documents to UPS and have them printed in the store.
“[UPS] is a convenient location for any business needs and student needs,” he said. “We’ll have computers available for students to come in, pull up their e-mail and print.”
Jeffrey Flannery, Area Franchisee for UPS, said the new UPS store will be beneficial to students.
“We can ship anything anywhere,” he said. “We’ll have all the finishing capabilities like binding and laminating, stapling and collating, hole-punching, all that kind of stuff. They’ll be able to e-mail documents or bring in a thumb drive, whatever’s easier for them.”
Will Stricklend, junior kinesiology major, said he usually makes copies at the library, which is overcrowded at times. He also has to scan documents himself, and they often print crooked.
“[UPS] would probably be better as far as the quality of the copies,” he said.
Students who need to receive mail too large for local P.O. boxes can have it shipped to UPS.
“[Students should] give us a call before they have something shipped to our store that does not belong to us,” Chambliss said. “That way we know not to refuse it, and we can inform them of the $5 charge.”
John Mullens, junior civil engineering major, said he had problems receiving large packages in his P.O. Box.
“When I was a freshman I got packages I couldn’t get ordinarily with my [local] P.O. Box, so if that UPS store would’ve been there, that would’ve been pretty convenient,” he said.
Unlike the local post office, UPS is limited to first class mail. Any packages it receives will have to be taken to the post office unless students arrange to pick them up from the store, Chambliss said.
In the late ’90s, Keith began planning the renovation of Colvard Student Union. He organized a focus group of students to see what new stores would best suit their needs.
“One of the top choices was a copycenter, which we had not had in the first building,” he said.
MSU Copy Services won the bidding but closed after six months.
“They certainly made some copies, but we just didn’t feel like they had the same ability to deliver the variety of services that a commercial copy center could,” he said. “We were happy for them to give it a try, [but] we were frankly disappointed that one of the commercial places didn’t get to bid the first time.”
By fall 2009, Keith organized a new focus group of students to discuss which store would take MSU Copy Services’s  place.
Chambliss said UPS differs from the previous print store by allowing students to pay by debit cards, credit cards, cash and checks.
UPS is currently not accepting MoneyMate but may do so in the future, Chambliss said.
Keith said MSU will make a profit from hosting UPS on campus.
“What we always look for is a service [that] will give us a revenue stream and allow us to provide better-kept facilities for the university,” he said.
He planned for UPS to open in fall 2010, but contract negotiations delayed proceedings until January.
Flannery said the biggest benefit of the UPS store for students will be the print shop.
“The UPS store can help [a student] manage his student workload by taking the printing and the finishing end of the business out of his hands,” he said. “We’ll do it faster and cheaper and with a smile.”