Heidelberg USA has donated a four-color Quickmaster DI digital printing press to the California Polytechnic State University’s Graphic Communication Department, San Luis Obispo, Calif. The press, valued at $262,000, was dedicated at an International Printing Week ceremony during which Gary Meinke, Heidelberg’s vice president/ Western Region, was presented with a Partners in Education plaque and a framed dedication poster printed on the press. Heidelberg is a long-standing “partner in education” with Cal Poly. Other Heidelberg technology at Cal Poly includes a 29-inch Speedmaster 74 with coating tower and spectrophotometer, several single-color presses and a scanner.  The digital press will be used in the department's regular academic program and by the university’s newly established Graphic Communication Institute, which conducts seminars and workshops for industry professionals and performs research, testing, and product evaluations. “The Heidelberg Quickmaster DI provides the opportunity to teach on state-of-the-art technology resembling what the students will encounter in industry when they graduate,” said Harvey Levenson, Graphic Communication Department head. “It provides an understanding of technology used for short-run, high-quality color printing.”  The department's University Graphic Systems (UGS) division will also use the new printing press. UGS is a student-run, full-service “printing company” that teaches students the same business practices and production procedures used by real printing companies, according to Levenson. “The students handle the marketing, sales and estimating functions, and are also responsible for customer service, quality control and assessment, inventory control, personnel relations, hiring and sometimes firing, production and distribution,” Levenson said. “They produce real jobs for university departments and, in the process, practice what they learn in the classroom and related laboratories.”  Founded in 1946, Cal Poly's Graphic Communication Department maintains an enrollment of approximately 300 students pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in graphic communication. The department offers concentrations in printing and imaging management, electronic publishing and imaging, design reproduction technology, and individualized study in graphic communication, which allows students to build their own specialties under faculty guidance. For more information, log on to www.calpoly.edu