Contribute to College Services Magazine

Connecting auxiliary services professionals

College Services is the publication arm of NACAS. Released every March, June, September, and December as a magazine and monthly as an e-newsletter, it serves to enhance and add synergy to the connections between our members.

Submitting an article

Most of our articles and commentaries are derived from NACAS membership but we accept material from any source that can build on the knowledge base for collegiate auxiliary services professionals. Since we are a non-profit association, we do not pay our contributing authors. However, we have never been wanting for interesting and instructive articles to publish, primarily due to the generosity, experience and enthusiasm of our members.

You can benefit as much by contributing to College Services as you can from reading the articles it contains. We often hear from our contributors that the process of documenting their project was a valuable learning experience for them and gave them new insights.

We know our members are not professional writers so we do our very best to make the process of submitting an article as effortless as possible. We will accept and consider a finished manuscript with photos of your latest campus project, a fledgling story idea, or anything in between. We have the editorial expertise to turn your ideas into a feature article that will earn the respect of your colleagues (not to mention your institution’s president). Send your idea, outline, or manuscript to Managing Editor,  Therese Umerlik.

Manuscripts

Feature articles are approximately 1,000-1,500 words in length. They should be submitted exclusively to this publication and written in first person, narrative style. Any promotion of products, services, or sales pitches may be deleted in the editing process.

Articles should be submitted as a formatted e-mail attachment (Microsoft Word, .pdf, or similar file). Include text styling (bold, italics) where appropriate. At the top of the story, please include your byline, as you would like it to appear, and a suggested headline and subheading.

Artwork/Photos

Digital photos and illustrations such as charts, logos, etc. should be in EPS, TIFF or high-resolution JPG format. Photos should be at least 300dpi at the actual size they will be printed. Full-page photos are 7 inches wide; column photos are at least 3.75 inches wide. Materials will be returned if requested. Hard copy photos or slides will also be accepted.

Please include captions or descriptions for each photo, giving full names and titles of staff, faculty, and students. Including applicable websites and e-mails are helpful.

Submit headshot photo of author(s) with short bio, and please include title and e-mail address.

Body of Work

Include a thumbnail sketch of your institution where the focus of the story is. Private or public? FTE? Residential or commuter campus? Etc. We can pull this info from your edu Web site if your prefer.

This information is invaluable to readers in assessing how these ideas might work or be implemented at their schools! Be as specific as possible. Anticipate the reader’s questions when writing your article. Readers want to know costs (in dollars and/or personnel investment), time frames, method of selecting companies to do work, and the usual who, what, when, where and why.

If the article is about renovation of existing facilities, indicate how you managed to work through the process (temporarily shutting down operations, working around the construction, temporary relocation of the service, etc.). Include before and after photos.

All stories must be correct and accurate when submitted. In submitting the story you verify that you have thoroughly fact-checked the content.

Process

Once we have received your manuscript and any other materials, we will edit the article for clarity, style and space considerations. If major changes to the story are required, you will be given the chance to review the final text of the article. If additional text or supporting images are needed, you will be notified. The article will be printed according to the previously arranged schedule.