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When universities seek outside contractors for most things, student input is not always the first thing on their minds. All too often, it is the last.
Thanks to the efforts of ASUI, three bookstore companies will be scrutinized and subjected to student questioning this week.
ASUI has done its part in forcing the issue and in making these meetings happen before the end of the semester. However this goes down, chalk up a win to our student representatives for getting something done.
Now it is up to the rest of the student body to show that ASUI’s efforts are not wasted.
Take an hour today, Wednesday and Thursday and get involved.
For all those times you’ve itched for a cause, here it is.
Representatives from Barnes & Noble, Follett Higher Education Group and Validis Resources will be here, ready to answer questions from faculty and students.
This is not how these things usually go. Most of these meetings are behind closed doors or done during the summer when few students are here to question what happens.
As of now, nothing has been decided. No one has said that some corporate giant will run the bookstore next year. The bookstore’s independence has not been stripped away.
The reason this is happening is that the university is searching for ways to make the bookstore better for everyone. There are pros and cons to being independent just as there would be if it were run by one of these three companies.
UI’s policy makers have not closed their minds to any possibilities and students should not go into these meetings automatically against a corporate-run bookstore.
That’s why these forums are being made available to students: so students can find out if something different might be better or discover that what we have now is just fine.
These talks should serve as a sign that improvements to the bookstore are needed. Perhaps this is exactly the catalyst needed to spur those changes.
–TJT
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