Ram Print, Fordham’s print shop, provides the Fordham University community with a cost-sensitive alternative to retail copying establishments. Ram Print, located in Faculty Memorial Hall, supplies the community with goods and services such as pamphlets, books, posters, signs and ID cards. Starting July 1, the print shop will operate through an online print portal and print jobs will continue to be processed on campus at Rose Hill, but by Canon personnel. As a result, Ram Print’s five Fordham employees have been laid off, effective July 1.
Anthony Grono, interim vice president for finance and assistant treasurer, attributes the modernization of Ram Print to a decrease in print volume.
“For more than 20 years, Ram Print has served our community with a hybrid workforce comprised of both Fordham and Canon employees. Post-[COVID-19], print volume across the university has decreased dramatically by 50%, and we see no signs of print volume returning to pre-[COVID-19] levels.”
Grono also affirmed that the university’s decision was in good faith to the students and their families.
“Every penny we spend reflects the life savings of our students and families, which is why we’re modernizing our Ram Print operations in partnership with Canon to maximize cost efficiencies while contributing to a more sustainable Fordham.”
Seth Knight, FCRH ’93, has worked at Ram Print for over 30 years, and he is currently assistant manager. Knight said that Ram Print’s numbers are the highest they’ve been in five years.
“Since I’ve been fired, or ‘slow fired,’ they brought us into HR [human resources] on Jan. 3 and said our dollars were going down. I’ve had the best eight months since 2018. My shop was doing better now than before [COVID-19], and they don’t care,” said Knight.
According to Knight, Ram Print’s mission is to provide the university with goods and services at a cut rate. Currently, Ram Print is a partnership between Fordham and Canon. Beginning this summer, the university will employ an extended partnership with Canon and jobs will be processed on campus at Rose Hill by Canon personnel, while some services may be outsourced at their Long Island facility and delivered daily to the Rose Hill, Lincoln Center and Westchester campuses.
“Starting July 1, a new online print portal will allow the campus community to manage every step of the print ordering process — from quoting jobs to proofing,” said Grono. According to Grono, the online portal will also introduce new and expanded print offerings that haven’t been available on campus.
Faculty and staff members utilize Ram Print for exam booklets, posters and brochures. Magda Teter, the Shvidler Chair in Judaic studies, used Ram Print’s services to source posters, poster boards and wall clings for the exhibitions “The Light of the Revival: Stained-Glass Designs for Restituted Synagogues in Ukraine by Eugeny Kotlyar” and “Knife/Paint/Word: The Art of Deborah Ugoretz.”
Teter said she was saddened to hear that Fordham decided to modernize Ram Print’s operations and further their partnership with Canon.
“I am devastated about this news. We have been using Ram Print for many items related to our exhibits in the Henry S. Miller Judaica Research Room at the Walsh Family Library… The working team there is fantastic. The quality of prints are exceptional,” Teter said.
Knight expressed concern over Fordham turning over Ram Print to Canon. According to Knight, Canon doesn’t understand Ram Print’s day-to-day operations or management of large-scale events such as move-in and commencement. Knight said that his largest concern is how the University will efficiently print and distribute ID cards. Ram Print administers around 4,000 ID cards each year — including during the summer when the university hosts summer sessions and conferences.
However, Knight’s primary concern is the welfare of his coworkers and the Fordham community.
“I wasn’t just looking out for my job [during COVID-19] but all the other guys’ too. It’s my guys… No one ever sat down to look at a spreadsheet and see how this is affecting people’s real lives,” said Knight. “Part of it isn’t anger for me. It’s anger for us [Fordham] as a unit. We used to be better than that.”
Knight reminisced on the years spent in Faculty Memorial Hall room 129 and the people he met through the job, saying, “I could tell you stories of tons of people who I’ve met through the years. People who would leave their kids in the Print Shop, I’d give them paper and they’d sit there and color.” Knight recounted attending a former student worker’s graduation party in Pennsylvania; that same student worker took the train from Brooklyn to the Bronx last year to thank Knight for everything he did for him.
“They can’t pay me for any of those things, but I know I made a goddamn difference. It’s a shame that because of someone’s hubris and someone else’s greed that it has to end,” said Knight.
