The Bellis Copy Center, located on the first floor of the Alumni Building, is one of the best kept secrets in Greenville according to Mike Sowers, the associate manager.
The center provides speedy and friendly service both to members of the university family and to those outside the institution.
While the Bellis Copy Center is located on campus and its primary focus is serving BJU faculty, staff and students, around 60% of its profit comes from outside of BJU despite its lack of advertising, according to Roy Hulehan, the director of retail at BJU. The primary way news of the Bellis Copy Center spreads is by word of mouth, such as in the case of Melody Minion, a senior interdisciplinary studies major.
Minion used the Bellis Copy Center for her wedding invitations. “I sent it [the order] in on Thursday night, they had the proof ready Friday and they had it printed a couple of hours after that,” she said. Minion heard about the Bellis Copy Center several times from various people around the campus and has used it a few times over her years at the University.
According to Hulehan, because a large amount of their profits come from outside of the University, the center can afford high-quality copy machines. This allows the copy center to get projects ready by the morning the prints are due, allowing for last-minute student orders.
Sowers said some of the frequent types of copy jobs that Bellis does include church bullets, color posters for societies or fine arts events and business cards. The faculty often print handouts and tests at the copy center, and Sowers said it frequently serves the art + design students at the University who need several copies of an assignment for class. “We have waves of [art students],” Sowers said.
Students with art-related majors often use the copy center because of its ability to copy projects in color effectively and because of the speed with which the copy center can copy their projects. Sowers said he is now able to recognize certain art-related projects when the first student for that particular class brings him the assignment to copy. “It’s like, ‘Oh, it’s this project again, because we did it last year,’” Sowers said. “[And I ask] How many students are in your class? Oh, about 25. Okay, so I have 24 more people that I will be doing this for by Wednesday.”
Prices vary based on the number of documents to copy and the size. For example, the price to copy a single-sided, black and white 8.5 x 11 document would be 10 cents. Another example would be a single-sided color document of the same size, which would be 55 cents.
Students, faculty and others in the Greenville community interested in using the Bellis Copy Center can place their orders online using the copy center’s website, www.belliscopycenter.com, or place their orders in person.