The Kentucky State University Board of Regents ended a direct contract for Xerox to provide mailing and copier/printing services for the university while unanimously voting to join a Commonwealth Ricoh contract with Xerox to provide the same services at Wednesday’s meeting. “For whatever reason Kentucky State entered a Services and Solution Agreement with Xerox in 2011,” said KSU […]
The Kentucky State University Board of Regents ended a direct contract for Xerox to provide mailing and copier/printing services for the university while unanimously voting to join a Commonwealth Ricoh contract with Xerox to provide the same services at Wednesday’s meeting.
“For whatever reason Kentucky State entered a Services and Solution Agreement with Xerox in 2011,” said KSU President M. Christopher Brown II. “It is an independent contract that runs through our institution alone, so it’s not a statewide contract.”
Brown said there wouldn’t be any financial impact from terminating the contract, which had been in place for a decade.
Neither KSU administration nor students have been happy with the services provided by Xerox, he said. The company provides mailing services for both administration and students. Students have reported broken mailboxes and displeasure with how package delivery is handled, Brown explained. Students are not directly informed when a package has arrived for them. Instead, the students must go to the Xerox office in the Academic Services Building and check a printed list of students with packages.
Students have also commented on the lack of service provided when printers around campus have run out of paper or toner, Brown said. Students are required to go to the Xerox office, pick up the paper and load it themselves.
“On a number of occasions even on the campus corporate side, we’ve lost mail, packages and even checks that have been sent, large master checks like insurance claims, and have had to really work to track them down,” he said.
Brown said the benefit of canceling the current contract with Xerox and joining the state Ricoh contract would be moving the Xerox office from the Administration Services Building to the student center.
The Ricoh contract would cost KSU $11,883 per month. Part of that new contract includes the construction of a FedEx-type store on the opposite side of the Spirit Shop in the student center. The location would have package shelves, compressed mail shelves and computer services in one central location, Brown said.
The location would be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and branded with KSU logos.
“Is there a time frame when that is started and completed?” Regents Chair Dr. Elaine Farris asked.
Douglas Allen II, KSU executive vice president for finance and administration and CFO, responded Xerox is prepared to begin the project within two weeks after the board voted to accept the Ricoh contract. The projected completion date for the renovations to create the new mail room would be approximately two months from the start date, he said.
The board unanimously voted to enter into the Commonwealth Ricoh contract with Xerox.
In other news, the board voted to accept the head football coach contract with Charlie Jackson. As the new head football coach, Jackson will make $160,000 a year, according to agenda paperwork provided by KSU.