Students, faculty and staff, in partnership with the State Employees Association of North Carolina, gathered at UNC-Chapel Hill Monday to protest the privatization of UNC Student Stores.
There are possible administrative plans to outsource student store operations to private parties.
In September, UNC-CH Student Stores celebrated 100 years in business, as being the No. 1 retailer in the world for UNC-licensed merchandise. However, the university is considering submitting a request for proposals to companies interested in privatizing the student store operations. The university has already received unsolicited requests from interested buyers such as Follett, a company that owns more than a thousand student stores across America.
NC State’s associate director of NCSU Bookstores, Anthony Sanders, doesn’t believe that NC State is considering following in UNC’s footsteps toward privatizing our student stores.
“We are a brand-new store, and we have a very excellent relationship with our administration at NC State,” Sanders said. “We donate everything we can back to the university. As long as we’re running a good operation … I don’t see why there would be outsourcing of NC State stores.”
However, in an email to the Technician, John Gullo, chairman of SEANC District 25, said NC State’s bookstore is being evaluated for outsourcing.
UNC Student Stores has historically generated large profits for scholarships — $27.5 million to UNC Academic Scholarships and Fellowships in the past 60 years, according to a SEANC fact sheet handed out at the rally. UNC Stores also employ about 200 UNC students annually, providing $500,000 in unofficial aid to students. Protesters fear these students and professional student store employees will lose their jobs if the university decides to outsource to a large corporation.
Protesters additionally claimed that privatizing the student stores would mean replacing the independent “family atmosphere” of UNC Student Stores with that of a cookie-cutter corporation feel.
“What’s next, a Starbucks around the Old Well?” said Ardis Watkins, SEANC director of Government Relations, to the growing crowd of protestors.
Sanders is a former UNC student and employee at Student Stores.
“I graduated from UNC,” Sanders said. “I worked at the UNC Student Stores before and after I graduated for a total of seven years. I don’t think outsourcing is a good idea for the university.”
Sanders went on to point out the advantages of being an independent university-owned store.
“We can make partnerships and alliances with software companies, such as Verbal, in order to ensure that our inventory is priced as inexpensively as possible,” Sanders said. “Corporations can’t do that.”
It is unclear whether or not large corporations such as Barnes & Noble or Follett would attempt to match current Student Store prices should UNC decide to outsource. However, it is clear from Follett’s unsolicited proposal to purchase UNC Student Stores that several million dollars would be paid to the university for “annual commissions.”
This money would translate into about $4 million in scholarship money for UNC students, according to Matthew Fajack, vice chancellor for finance and administration at UNC. In an interview with the Daily Tar Heel, Fajack said, “all of Follett’s commission payment … would go to scholarships.”
