Farris copy center can't afford to stay open

by Patricia Dworzak

Daily Lobo

Charles Reuben compares himself to Amtrak.

"I'm a valuable service that just can't pay for itself," he said.

Reuben has been the manager of the Farris School of Engineering Copy Center for 11 years, but it will close at the end of the month.

The center is thousands of dollars in debt and cannot afford to stay open, Reuben said.

Barbara West, an administrator for the School of Engineering, said the center did not make a profit.

"We can't make ends meet, and we just weren't able to break even," she said.

West said the center is around $40,000 in debt and loses about $5,000 a year.

With the center losing money every year, Reuben said it became increasingly difficult to maintain it.

"It was clear we had to close. We couldn't make it pay for itself," he said. "It was a bottom-line issue."

Reuben said it doesn't help that departments have their own copiers and many professors put documents online.

Dan Cosper, administrative assistant in the Computer Science department, said he used the copy center for large projects.

"We have a copier for most things," he said. "But we'd use it if we had bigger jobs or needed to bind something."

Cosper said Reuben is entertaining.

"We'll miss Chuck," he said.

Another problem, Reuben said, is competing against major corporations that can charge 2 cents per copy.

"I charged a nickel a copy and 50 cents for color copies," he said. "We had the lowest prices in the UNM area."

West said the copy center's prices were competitive, but more people are making their own copies.

"A lot of people have their own color printers on their desk," she said.

The cost of maintaining the copiers was also very expensive, West said.

Student Tara Zalewsky hadn't heard of the copy center.

"I would have used it," she said. "I teach a class that I make a lot of copies for."

Donovan McBee said he spends a lot of time at the School of Engineering but didn't use the center, because he never has a need to make copies.

Reuben said the copy center has been operating since the late 1970s.

He said he never hired anyone to work in the center with him.

"It was a one-man shop," he said. "There used to be a crew, but as machines got faster, it required less people. It was my little fiefdom."

Reuben said during the center's heyday, it would handle about 3,000 color copies and 100,000 black and white copies per month. He said with one man working the center, it became a lot of work.

West said closing the center is a necessary evil.

"It provides a great service for us, and a lot of students use it," she said. "And it's very convenient for professors. We regret we have to close it, but we just do."

The space the copy center occupies in Farris Engineering Center will be vacant as of May 31. West said the School hasn't decided what to do with it.

Reuben said working at the center has been the best job he's had.

"I loved it - best job I've ever had in my life," he said. "It was a golden age. I'll miss this place."

- Katy Knapp contributed to this report.