Letter: Student Stores has been successful

TO THE EDITOR:

John Jones’ letter, “Student Stores ought to remain public,” hit the nail on the head.

Instead of going for the low-hanging fruit, why aren’t the AcaBus (pronounced acaboos or academic bureaucrats) in South Building out there fundraising to get Carolina North off the ground rather than killing the golden goose?

What about the campus community that so positively benefits from the many facets of student stores?

Will the Apple computer store — which is an iteration of the original campus partnership with IBM years ago that made UNC one of the first campuses to require laptop computers for all incoming freshmen — get the shaft? What about the newly-installed pharmacy which hasn’t even opened? What about the Nike agreements and other clothing contracts that resulted in the store selling over a million dollars in clothing merchandise this year? What about the Bull’s Head Bookshop with its focus on academic publications?

How about the professional relationships with the faculty and departments who don’t even know which textbooks to order beforehand because the TA’s haven’t been appointed and don’t know what books they wish to use? Every semester is a Kabuki dance with the academic departments due to changing faculty, course curricula and text options, not to mention the minefields of textbook publishers with their rapacious digital add-ons that are driving the costs of normal textbooks to ridiculous extremes for 17-week semesters. Student Stores does an amazing job balancing all of these variables in order to have an inventory of all course offerings for each semester. In addition, they make every effort to stock as many used texts as possible to ensure a less expensive choice to students.

Finally, what of the retail book trade in general? Is Barnes & Noble really making money? If so, why are they shuttering so many stores?

If Student Stores is privatized, then it will no longer be constrained by the Umstead Act and will be able to go after the downtown merchants. These merchants should be concerned since the store is currently limited to the type of merchandise it offers. This will leave the town merchants with a wide retail latitude. Will there be a massive Clinique boutique with a piano by the escalators?

Finally, what exact success has the campus stores previously privatized by these AcaBus experienced? Are the campuses and students really better off?

Student Stores has successfully completed a century of service to the campus and it behooves us to consider the ramifications of short-sighted monetary gains in view of the larger mission to the University community.

F. Marion Redd

Class of ’67