Paul Hoecke, Manager, UNC Print Shop and Copy Center
13 years working at Carolina
What’s a typical day like in your job?
A variety of things go on here, and we don’t know what the day will be like until we see what’s in the order queue in the morning. We could do single posters or we could have programs for a conference event. During the regular semesters, we have lots of student homework projects and everything in between, from personal projects to faxes. You wouldn’t believe how many people still need to send faxes.
How does your work support Carolina’s mission?
The top things that came into our purview in the last three or four years are business cards, letterhead and envelopes. We work closely with UNC Creative, which develops Carolina’s brand and the style guide for the University. We’re pretty proud of the quality and the speed of our work, and that we can provide our services right here on campus. If there’s an issue, we’ll do our best to facilitate getting it corrected and a new printed piece in their hands as quickly as we can.
What do you like most about your work?
Probably how we interact with every corner of campus. Going back to when I started as a copywriter assistant, we would regularly visit departments to pick up materials or deliver sample proofs before going to full production. And over the years it feels like we’ve visited every office on campus. That’s probably as fun a part of the job as anything.
What is something surprising about working at the Print Stop?
Whenever I step back and take a moment to look at the numbers, I see the tremendous amount of printing we do in any given year. We had 8,500 orders last year, including thousands of posters. I’m not sure how we did it, but we did. And we’ve been doing it every year. It’s always a team effort. There’s really no “I” here.
Do you have a favorite kind of paper?
Oh, that’s a good question. One of us will come into the shop and tell the rest, “Oh, I went to a wedding this weekend, and I got the program. I found myself going, ‘Ooh, they used a nice paper.’” But we also have some pretty nice glossy stock. I’ve got an example of the media guide we did for the basketball team. Full glossy cover. That looks pretty sharp.
Carolina People is a regular feature in each issue of the Gazette that asks one of your fascinating colleagues five questions about the work they do for the University. Do you know someone with an interesting or unique job at Carolina? Please email your suggestions to gazette@unc.edu and put Carolina People in the subject line.