Annual Report 2014-2015

Letter from the Director

darrin2 On January 1, 2015, the University Press of Colorado began celebrating the fifty-year anniversary of its founding in 1965. The first six months were full of publishing and rebranding activity, as we launched a new website, a new logo, and plenty of new books. The Association of American University Presses also held its annual meeting in Denver in honor of our birthday, where Adams State University poet and English professor Aaron A. Abeyta delivered a moving speech at the opening banquet.

The fiscal year that ended in the middle of this celebratory activity did not disappoint. For the third year in a row, University Press of Colorado topped $1 million in operating revenue. Print sales continue to produce the lion's share of that earned revenue, with 87 percent of revenue generated by sales of print books. Ebook sales generated 10 percent of operating revenue, and rights and permissions generated another 3 percent. Ebook sales continue to grow at the fastest pace, up 13 percent compared with the previous year, although that growth is slowing down compared to the previous few years. Perhaps the most interesting trend to note is that ebook unit sales actually outpaced hardcover sales at UPC for the first time, although paperback sales remain much stronger than either hardcover or ebook sales. In 2014–2015 we sold 10 percent more paperback units than we did during the previous year.

In 2014–2015, UPC produced fifty-four new print titles and editions in the fields of anthropology, composition, folklore, history, and natural history, which is eighteen more titles than in 2013–2014, an increase in output of 50 percent. Six Colorado and Utah State titles won awards this year, and we also published or distributed a number of important publications from member faculty and departments, including Different Roads (distributed for Western Press Books at Western State Colorado University), Generation Vet: Composition, Student Veterans, and the Post-9/11 University (edited by Sue Doe and Lisa Langstraat, Colorado State University), Making an American Workforce: The Rockefellers and the Legacy of Ludlow (edited by Fawn-Amber Montoya, Colorado State University–Pueblo), Old Blue's Road: A Historian's Motorcycle Journeys in the American West (James Whiteside, emeritus, University of Colorado Denver), Songs (Mountain West Poetry Series, distributed for Colorado State University), Still Life with Rhetoric: A New Materialist Approach for Visual Rhetorics (Laurie E. Gries, University of Colorado Boulder), Supplice (winner of the 2014 Colorado Prize for Poetry, distributed for Colorado State University), Transient Landscapes: Insights on a Changing Planet (Ellen Wohl, Colorado State University), and The Verging Cities (Mountain West Poetry Series, distributed for Colorado State University).

Finally, in 2014–2015 we continued to build toward the future. In addition to adding a full-time position in support of editorial and production and releasing correspondingly more titles, we created a new full-time position in our marketing department and hired someone who began on the first day of the current fiscal year. As we continue to increase our title output, we also recognize the need to improve our ability to spread the word regarding the good work we do, our brilliant authors, and their great books. The fiscal year spanning 2014–2015 was an excellent step in the right direction.

—Darrin Pratt, Director

2014–2015 Board of Trustees

Katherine E. Browne
Colorado State University

Bradford Cole
Utah State University

Edward R. Crowther
Adams State University

James Drake
Metropolitan State University

Joyce Kinkead
Utah State University

Michael Lightner
University of Colorado System

Suzanne MacCaulay
University of Colorado Colorado Springs

Pete McCormick
Fort Lewis College

Heather Orr
Western State Colorado University

Jared Orsi
Colorado State University

Kathleen Pickering
Colorado State University

Thomas Reynolds
Regis University

Payson Sheets
University of Colorado Boulder

Jeannie Thomas
Utah State University

Jay Trask
University of Northern Colorado

Mary Van Buren
Colorado State University

Kariann Akemi Yokota
University of Colorado Denver

More...

2015 Financial Statements

Statement of Financial Position
Year Ended June 30, 2015
Current Assets
Cash and Cash Equivalents	$64,701
Accounts Receivable (Net)	$219,586
Inventory at Cost	$389,019
Prepaid Expenses	$27,513
Total	$700,819

Other Assets	$20,966

Total Assets	$721,785

Current Liabilities
Accounts Payable	$15,573
Accrued Vacation and Sick Pay	$42,267
Royalties and Commissions	$99,717
Unearned Income	$140,711
Line of Credit	-$0-
Total Current Liabilities	$298,268

Net Assets—Unrestricted	$423,517

Total Liabilities and Net Assets	$721,785

Statement of Activities
Year Ended June 30, 2015
Revenues
Net Book Sales	$1,049,394
Other Publishing Income	$22,334
Member Dues	$242,208
Donation, Interest, and Other Income	$11,009
Total Revenues	$1,324,945

Cost of Sales
Cost of Books Sold	$202,042
Title Subsidies	$(34,000)
Inventory Write-Off	$56,578
Royalties and Commissions	$101,701
Total Cost of Sales	$326,321

Gross Margin	$998,624

Expenses
Editorial Expense	$370,073
Production Expense	$97,675
Marketing Expense	$148,487
Fulfillment Expense	$164,491
General and Administrative Expense	$284,489
Total Expenses	$1,065,215

Total Increase (Decrease) in Net Assets	($66,591)

Our Supporters

Grants and Donations

The University Press of Colorado is a 501(c)3 nonprofit membership organization that relies on the ongoing support of its members, as well as funds from other institutions, granting agencies, and individuals, to fulfill our mandate as a scholarly publisher. We thank the following institutions and individuals for their generous contributions to our publishing program this year.

National Science Foundation, $20,000 in support of Gambling Debt: Iceland's Rise and Fall in the Global Economy edited by E. Paul Durrenberger and Gisli Palsson
Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, $12,000 in support of Wyoming Revisited: Rephotographing the Scenes of Joseph E. Stimson by Michael A. Amundson
University of Connecticut Storrs, $2,000 in support of Securing a Place for Reading in Composition: The Importance of Teaching for Transfer by Ellen C. Carillo

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Member Institutions

Ongoing support for the publishing program at the University Press of Colorado is provided by the following sustaining members:

Adams State University
Colorado State University (Fort Collins/Pueblo)
Fort Lewis College
Metropolitan State University of Denver
Regis University
University of Colorado (Boulder/Colorado Springs/Denver)
University of Northern Colorado
Utah State University
Western State Colorado University

In Focus

Student Demographics and Classroom Pedagogy Post-9/11

So many books that we published in 2014–2015 have great stories behind them and are making impacts in their respective fields that singling out any of them seems like a disservice to the whole. That said, there is one title that deserves special mention, and that is Generation Vet: Composition, Student Veterans, and the Post-9/11 University edited by Sue Doe and Lisa Langstraat at Colorado State University.

In "Preparing to Serve Those Who Served Us: Helping Social Work Field Educators Prepare Veterans for Internships" (Field Educator, Spring 2012), Katherine Selber and Nancy Chavkin open by stating that with "the passage of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, commonly known as the Post-9/11 GI Bill, military personnel and veterans are enrolling at an unprecedented rate in institutions of higher education." Obviously, this creates many different challenges for colleges and universities as they attempt to transition veterans from "combat to college" and provide a base of support for the former soldiers and their families. This includes medical support in many cases, as noted by Sandra G. Boodman in Kaiser Health News (November 2011).

But in additional to medical and social support, there are also pedagogical issues for those teaching this new type of student, especially in courses required university-wide such as freshman composition. In Generation Vet, Doe and Langstraat note that while many campus divisions like admissions and student services are actively moving to accommodate the rise in this demographic, little research about this population and their educational needs is available, and academic departments have been slower to adjust. This book is meant as a corrective, offering well-researched, pedagogically savvy recommendations for curricular and programmatic responses to student veterans for English and writing studies departments.

As the editors write in the introduction, "our own personal histories in regard to military service have driven our interest and sustained our commitment to the issues that have emerged in this collection." Sue Doe is married to a career Corps of Engineers Army officer, and Lisa Langstraat is the daughter of a career Army warrant officer. It is their sincere hope that Generation Vet "will spark greater awareness of our students who, as military dependents," bring a very particular set of experiences with them when they walk onto the college campus.