An Overview of Changes Coming to the College Bookstore
The bookstore is located in the College Union Building. (Vincent DiFonzo/The Gettysburgian)
By Vincent DiFonzo, Editor-in-Chief
The College is transitioning the operations of its bookstore, located in the College Union Building, from current partner Barnes & Noble to a new partnership with University Gear Shop (UGS).
In a post to the student digest, Executive Director of Auxiliary Services Mike Bishop described the change, stating “UGS specializes in driving brand growth and awareness through imprinted merchandise and apparel, along with robust marketing, technology and e-commerce solutions.”
Bishop also announced that the school’s course material provider will “switch to eCampus beginning this spring.” He described eCampus as “[offering] a wide range of course materials to purchase or rent, including e-textbooks and online learning solutions.”
The Gettysburgian reached out to Bishop for more information on the switch from Barnes & Noble to UGS and how the change will affect students.
Bishop explained that as part of the switch to “eCampus,” the bookstore will no longer house course materials — books and textbooks. Instead, students can still purchase their books through the bookstore, but they will be shipped either to the student’s home or to the student’s campus mailbox through the mailroom. He said that eCampus offers two-day shipping, so “books will arrive quickly.”
“We have seen a steady decline in the number of professors who use textbooks and find other resources to use,” said Bishop. “Many work with the Open Educational Resource team in the library to provide free course materials for their students and the library also has many of the textbooks that professors use available for students.”
Professors will still be able to request course materials for their courses through the bookstore with eCampus.
“Students will be able to find a link to the required course materials in Moodle once they are registered for the class and then can click on links to eCampus to purchase the materials they need,” said Bishop. “eCampus offers a price match tool, so if a student finds it cheaper at another source, they can let eCampus know and they will match the price.”
Regarding merchandise, Bishop said that “UGS will be able to provide more focus on our store as far as merchandise is concerned. Barnes & Noble is a very large company, and we are a small store, compared to Rutgers and Penn State and other large stores they focus on.”
“UGS will work to provide a wide variety of items at varied price points. One complaint we have received in the past was there were a lot of more expensive items in the store and very few low to mid range items, thus, students didn’t feel like they could afford items. UGS will focus on items geared towards students, while still offering items for alumni,” said Bishop.
As part of the change, all current bookstore employees are set to be laid off. According to Bishop, current bookstore employees will have the opportunity to apply for a position at UGS or they can remain with Barnes & Noble by working at a different school’s bookstore.
Bishop stated that the “UGS management team has not been finalized yet, but once that is done, other positions in the store will be opened for applicants.” He also shared that UGS will hire “student ambassadors to help with marketing and pop up stores at special events.”
Bishop explained that the bookstore will be shrinking in size over the summer to give space for the ongoing renovations to the College Union Ballroom. With less room, they will also “be reducing the amount of school supplies sold in the store, as they make up a very small portion of sales, basically taking up more space than needed.” However, “some three ring binders, notebooks, pens and notecards will be available” at the bookstore, according to Bishop.
One current student employee at the bookstore spoke to The Gettysburgian about the changes.
“I don’t think that students, faculty and other people at the college understand what these changes really mean,” the student said. They shared that they’ve been spending the past few weeks “boxing up all of our school supplies, electronics and books to send to other [Barnes and Noble] school stores.”
“You should take a look in the bookstore and see how empty the back section is. Good luck finding a pen,” the student said. “The bookstore is essentially being turned into a glorified gift shop. Although I appreciate that the bookstore will now have more clothing items, I resent the fact that I will no longer be able to buy pens, folders, highlighters or any of those kinds of items in the bookstore.”
Further, the student said they “find it ridiculous that the bookstore will no longer be dealing with books.”
The bookstore will close from Monday, May 19 to Tuesday, May 27 as part of the transition to UGS.
