SAN LUIS OBISPO – Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication Department recently concluded its celebration of International Printing Week. The four-day lecture series and career day brought some of the best-known companies and industry leaders to Cal Poly and helped raise funds for the department’s 60th anniversary fund drive. Companies participating at this year’s event included Esko-Graphics, Coverbind, Oce, the U.S. Government Printing Office, GretagMacbeth and Eastman Kodak. Lectures were given by representatives of the Parable Group, Mark Andy, Smart Paper, DuPont Imaging Technologies, Rotometrics, STI Systems Technology, Presstek, Crestec LA and Enovation. A major event highlight was the presentation “Critical Trends for Critical Times,” given by Frank Romano, industry leader and former head of the School of Print Media at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Romano’s lecture focused on market and technology trends impacting graphic communication. Harvey Levenson, department head of Graphic Communication said, “It is a tradition that Cal Poly celebrates International Printing Week as a scholarly and intellectual event. We do it in a way that is a tribute to the scholarly and philosophical under girding, of our industry. We want to give our students a sense of where our industry came from, what it has become today, and the important contribution it has made to the production and dissemination of knowledge throughout the world." Michael Cunningham, former chairman of Cunningham Graphic International and Cal Poly Research Professor from Industry, recently established an endowment at Cal Poly with a gift of $100,000 to support the Graphic Communication Department’s present and future development as well as support its 60th anniversary fund drive. At the International Printing Week Banquet, held at the Madonna Inn, Cal Poly alumnus Ray Hartman of R. R. Donnelley & Sons and a team from Donnelley presented the Graphic Communication Institute at Cal Poly with a gift of $50,000. The gift will help further Cal Poly’s services to industry, and contribute to the Graphic Communication Department’s 60th anniversary $2.5-million fund drive. “The presentations made at this year’s Printing Week were extraordinary. The interaction between industry professionals and Cal Poly students bodes well for the future of the Graphic Communication profession. We are grateful for our industry friends for taking the time to be involved with the next generation of leaders,” said Malcolm Keif, Graphic Communication associate professor and acting department head. The week concluded with Career Day, which offered nearly 20 companies an opportunity to exhibit information and interview and recruit students for future employment. The Graphic Communication Department holds career day events for industry three times a year.