The contract for the campus bookstore, currently held by Nebraska Books, is soon to expire. Students could see a new company takeover in the fall of this year or the continuation of Nebraska Books.
All of this depends upon the outcome of an open bidding process. According to Associate Vice President of Financial Services B.J. King, the department is currently seeking companies’ bids for the use of the on-campus bookstore.
Most likely three companies will be competing for the contract with ETSU, said King. This includes current company Nebraska Books, the previous contract holder Barnes & Noble and Follett Corporation.
Along with the store in the D.P. Culp, the company is also responsible for the College of Medicine bookstore, the store at the Gray Fossil Site, and at the Kingsport campus.
Once these bids are in, a committee of faculty and students will evaluate the companies using a points system. The company will be chosen based upon several criteria such as service, quality and the ability to work well with the university and commission.
King says the decisions lies within the company “who can provide most for the institution as a whole.”
The committee will evaluate the bids on their availability of textbooks, and ways to reduce costs for students. Student representation on the committee will most likely come from within the Student Government Association.
“My biggest concern is looking at when Barnes & Noble owned it, compared to Nebraska, the financial situation which had the most success from running the bookstore,” said Travis Lockner SGA secretary of allocations.
The SGA wants to increase awareness for Financial Aid available for textbook purchases by creating a service that would allow students to fill out the required paperwork within the bookstore itself.
Keeping money on campus is a concern of Lockner’s as well as the SGA, who want to be able to “tell other students that this is the cheapest bookstore.”
“I got tired of [buy back prices] when I looked at half.com,” said Steven Efremov, junior.
Junior Adam Coleman is another student who is “angry at the re-sale value of textbooks.”
“Competition has rapidly increased in the last 10 years,” said King, who feels that the convenience that the bookstore offers to students keeps business running smoothly.
Off-campus bookstores also serve as competition. The College Store is owned by Nebraska Books, but SBX is a Barnes & Noble bookstore.
Junior Samantha Bumgardner said she would prefer to have Barnes & Noble contract the bookstore “just for the fact that there would be a better variety of books.” She buys her textbooks at the campus bookstore and doesn’t feel that prices are higher.
“Compared with other universities I think it’s even, but it’s still expensive,” she said.
The decision will be made sometime this summer.
The contract runs out Oct. 31.

Author