TO THE EDITOR:
I’m disturbed by the recent proposal to outsource UNC Student Stores to Follett. As a graduate student and later as a member of UNC’s faculty, I always had wonderful experiences with Student Stores, particularly with the Bull’s Head Bookshop. The customer service was superb, the prices were decent and the Bull’s Head was very tuned in to the community.
My current institution has outsourced to Follett, and it’s been disastrous. Their markup on textbooks is 40 percent, which makes them unaffordable to my students. Their turnover rate is dismally high, their customer service is nonexistent and there have been times when they’ve simply forgotten to order the texts or failed to notify me when one of my texts was unavailable.
Outsourcing the functions of Student Stores will be detrimental to the UNC community. I ask the administration to please reject Follett’s bid and to keep Student Stores as is.
Prof. Michael Rulon
Department of French Northern Arizona University
