PROVIDENCE -- About 100 supporters for keeping the Brown University bookstore an independent fixture on College Hill rallied outside the Thayer Street shop last evening to send a message to school administrators:
Ceding operation of the store to "a corporate superpower" such as Barnes & Noble, would be, as Brown professor and author Robert Coover said, "a betrayal of Brown's innermost principles."
"It must not be allowed to die anymore than the Bengal tiger or the horned owl," said Coover.
After studying for more than a year ways to improve operations of the bookstore, a university review committee recently announced that most of its members favor leasing the $12-million-a-year bookstore to a national chain such as Barnes & Noble's College Division or Follett Higher Education Group.
School officials say a final decision has yet to be made. But many attending last night's rally said they feel the decision is all but a signed deal unless the Brown community comes together to preserve what has been a Thayer Street staple for 35 years.
"Without some strong oppostion, it will ultimately lead to outsourcing," said Brian Sweeney, a third-year graduate student.
Karen McAninch, business agent for United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island, and an East Side resident, said: "This is not the university I'm familiar with. We can do better."
McAninch and other speakers said a chain bookstore on Thayer Street would jeopardize the jobs of bookstore employees, reduce the selection of books, particularly those of smaller publishers, increase the prices of books and threaten to drive up rents.
That, in turn, could drive away many other small, independent stores along Thayer Street, they said, paving the way for Thayer Street to become a strip of chain stores operated by national corporations.
McAninch said people who have supported the bookstore "for years and years -- longer than these [school] administrators -- need to speak up" before a Thayer Street institution disappears.
tmooney@projo.com / (401) 277-7359
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