A committee found advantages to having an independent contractor run the store, but the university will make the decision.

01:00 AM EST on Friday, March 3, 2006

BY KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- After studying for a year how to best improve the Brown University bookstore, a review committee said its majority favors leasing the $12-million-a-year bookstore to a national retailer such as Barnes & Noble's college division or Follett Higher Education Group.

Aware that doing so could create "strong opposition" or cries of "selling out" to a national corporation, the committee suggested that both the leasing option and the other viable alternative -- continued self-operation -- "should be explored more fully in the community" before a decision is made.

The Brown Daily Herald quoted bookstore employees this week who said they feared the university has already decided to outsource the store's operations, but Beppie Huidekoper, vice president for finance and administration and chairwoman of the review committee, said that is not the case.

"No decision has been made. Absolutely not," Huidekoper said.

While the majority of committee members did decide that "there were advantages and more benefits" to having an independent contractor, the members of the committee "are not making the decision. The administration makes the decision," she said.

In a report issued today, the committee noted that it had ruled out a third option -- forming a partnership with a small independent bookseller to manage the store.

A decade's worth of changes in the buying and selling of textbooks, trade books and computer systems "have significantly affected how university bookstores operate," according to the report. That led to the formation of the committee, comprised of faculty, students and staff.

Huidekoper said the committee plans to meet with campus groups this month and host several forums. Public comment will be welcomed through Brown's Web site, www.brown.edu

"We'd like to try and get all questions out in the next month or six weeks," said Huidekoper. "Our goal is to have a decision made before students and faculty leave" for the semester, "but if we're still exploring, we'll wait until they come back" in the fall.

Stephen M. Foley, an associate professor of English and member of the review committee, said the bookstore "represents the range of intellectual work done at the university," and one challenge is to have "the best range of cutting-edge engineering, the best range of poetry" available, on its shelves. Keeping up with changes in technology is another.

The committee recommends that if the bookstore continues under self-operation, then considerable improvements and investments must be made.

That option "appeals to those on the committee and in the Brown community who feel the university will better consider the interests of the customers," and be less swayed by corporate-decision making or profit-driven motives, the report said.

The committee determined that contracting with a vendor specializing in higher education material would offer "the most potential to provide expertise, resources, systems and capital to upgrade the bookstore, as well as the capacity to stay current with changes in the college merchandise and text- and trade-book markets in the future," the report said.

But the report notes that opposition to ceding Brown's independence "should not be underestimated," and the university's cabinet "should give special consideration to whether the extent of opposition will be strong enough to divide the campus" and distract attention from the university's academic goals.

It also notes that if Barnes & Noble College Booksellers were selected as the vendor, "the university should communicate clearly with the community that Barnes & Noble College Booksellers is not the same company that operates bookstores in malls throughout the country."

Bookstore employees said yesterday they are concerned about their jobs and the general economic impact in the community if the university opts to outsource the store to a national vendor. They say the bookstore just wouldn't be the same.

"I think many of us here have a strong loyalty to the university and pride ourselves" on working on its behalf, said Susan Schlesinger, assistant buyer. "I think the level of customer service and sense of community that's provided would drop off," along with employee loyalty, she said.

Julie Summersquash, a 15-year employee who does special ordering at the Brown Bookstore, said she believes that "chains have a set way of doing things" and would be less flexible.

Liz Boland, supervisor of cashiers and loss prevention, said she left Barnes & Noble to work at the Brown Bookstore.

"I don't think they're really book people," Boland said of the Barnes & Noble operation. "They're more retail people, from large corporations."

Jill McCormack, a senior concentrating in political science and Latin, and a part-time bookstore employee, previously attended Tufts University, whose bookstore is managed by the Barnes & Noble College Booksellers.

"One of the things I like about this place is the individual personalities that come into play here," said McCormack. She said she believes that chain stores, on the other hand, "have a rule book. You're expected to dress a certain way, and address the public in a certain way."

Scott DeLomba, a senior store clerk, said, "As someone who grew up here, I think Thayer Street and the East Side were once almost a bohemian kind of atmosphere." But outsourcing to a national retailer "would be basically another nail in the coffin" in losing that rich texture, he said.

kziner@projo.com / (401) 277-7375