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Features
Technology & Campus Services: The Changing Face of Auxiliary Services
9/30/2006
The solution focuses on ensuring addresses are accurate before they ever hit the campus mailroom. Senders transfer their address data to Intra-Mail, which uses proprietary software to match address lists to unique campus routing schemes, reducing undeliverable campus addressing and expediting delivery through campus mail centers. The company also converts massive unsorted commercial mail into presorted bundles. Within each bundle, IntraMail numerically sequences the mail according to a mail center’s delivery route. By the time on-campus mail carriers get the mail, it is accurate, sorted, and ready for them to deliver—without headaches.
GREEN SYSTEMS INNOVATION (clockwise, left to right):
At Carnegie Mellon, technology protects rare books; at
Penn State, lighting is conventionai and au naturel; at
University
of Vermont, ventilation systems go green.
Surprisingly, this service is free to participating schools. It is the senders— pharmaceutical companies, magazine publishers, retail/wholesale catalog companies and the like—that foot the bill; they are more than willing to pay to ensure that greater levels of their product information reach their intended audiences. Intra-Mail President Michael Sanders says his firm actually pays colleges a minimum of two cents for each piece of mail it successfully delivers. The economics behind the equation are simple: The more schools Intra-Mail can claim as customers, the more money the company can charge senders for the process of making sure their mailed pieces go where they want them to go.
For the sender clients, and for higher ed administrators, the benefits are indisputable: “Would you rather have 1,000 pieces come in, 40 percent of which are for people who are no longer there,” asks Sanders, “or would you rather have 600 pieces come in, almost all of them addressed perfectly? For colleges that have grappled with this problem for years, I’d say the answer is pretty clear.”
Going Green
For Kermit the Frog, it’s not easy being green. But across academia, colleges and universities are finding it easier— and more advantageous—than ever before. In the world of higher education as elsewhere, “green” refers to the adoption of responsible environmental practices. While this may not seem like a traditional component of auxiliary services, many officials say it’s part of an overarching drive toward sustainability— something which every Auxiliary Services department should strive for. In fact, many “green” practices now fall under the auspices of campus Auxiliary Services departments, and many require the intelligent use of technology. What’s more, these efforts don’t just facilitate conservation; they can save campus dollars as well, lowering operational outlay by saving energy costs, for instance.
Green programs are wide-ranging and include efforts such as more effective recycling, better management of energy consumption, and the implementation of construction certified by the US Green Building Council, the body that has established worldwide standards (known as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, Green Building Rating System) for this kind of thing. In the state of Pennsylvania, for instance, Pittsburgh-based WTW Architects has helped a number of colleges and universities launch projects that fall into the green category. Hank Colker, a principal with the firm, says these efforts are a “combination of common sense and high technology,” and notes that a sampling of their clients and projects includes:
- Carnegie Mellon University, at which the new Posner Center features a “green” roof (the roof space is “greened” by a full garden), as well as sophisticated mechanical and lighting systems to protect the center’s rare book collections.
- Pennsylvania State University, where a new building in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture showcases natural lighting (skylights, window walls, etc.).
- California University of Pennsylvania, which is replacing some residence halls with new facilities that have geothermal heating and cooling systems.
- Slippery Rock University, where a project to build seven new residence halls may be one of the largest LEEDcertified student housing projects in the world.
- Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where special contractors have been hired to demolish out-of-date buildings and recycle them as clean landfill.
Recommended Reading
- 2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Enhanced Learning/ Assessment
- 2008 Campus Technology Innovators: High-Performance Computing
- 2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Interactive, Remote Learning
- 2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Mobile Learning
- 2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Network Security
- 2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Social Networking for Admissions
