Faculty question bookstore, private-sector service providers

Follett has ignored a 1995 report from the University Bookstore Task Force requesting "upgrades in several different areas where we felt the local operation is grossly deficient" compared to other university bookstores, a member of the task force told the Faculty Senate Executive Committee at its Feb. 12 meeting.

"They simply blew us off," said Bernice Noble, professor of microbiology and a member of the task force and the University Bookstore Committee.

Noble and Peter Nickerson, professor of pathology and a member of the bookstore committee, briefed senators on a Feb. 5 meeting of the committee and the Follett management team, which included the regional manager and a senior vice president of the Elmhurst, Ill.,-based company. The meeting had been requested, Noble said, in response to "student agitation" this fall and also what she called attempts by Follett to violate a memorandum of understanding under which it operates.

The University at Buffalo Foundation, Inc., which owns the land on which the bookstore is located, has a memorandum of understanding with Follett that makes the company the sole campus bookstore until 2020.

The Feb. 5 meeting with Follett was an attempt "to work with the bookstore; we're trying to make it better for all of us," said Nickerson. But, he said, "It's not yet clear what they're going to do" about the task force report. He added that the issue was a complex one because the UB Foundation ­ and not the university administration ­ has to negotiate with Follett on space and other issues.

The task force, whose members include faculty, staff and students, was formed several years ago in response to complaints from students about the bookstore's service and prices, Noble told senators. According to the memorandum of understanding, Follett will provide UB "with an operation that is up to the standards of the best campus bookstores in the country; it's no more specific than that," she said.

In preparing its report, task force members visited a number of campus bookstores, including the stores at Cornell and Syracuse universities, and interviewed the managers of those bookstores about their space and pricing policies. It was on the basis of those site visits and interviews that the task force issued its report requesting upgrades.

Several senators said the situation with Follett does not bode well for university relations with other private-sector service providers.

"If the relationship of the university to the bookstore and the responsiveness of the bookstore management, and the request for compliance by the university can be taken as an example of what's in store for us when we have more private-sector arrangements to solve our problems, we'd better worry," said Noble.

"This is not a happy relationship. The students are not satisfied, many faculty are not satisfied and neither the university nor Follett seems at all highly motivated to do anything about it.

"And if we go from this to dormitories," she said, referring to a proposal to build apartment-style housing on UB Foundation land adjacent to campus, "it's going to be bad. So I think actually it behooves the university to sort this out correctly, just so they'll have some credibility for setting up similar relationships with the private sector."

Jack Meacham, professor of psychology, told senators that he often updates his professional library at local university bookstores when traveling to professional conferences. "I simply can't do it here on my own campus, and my graduate students can't do it and my undergraduates can't do it," he said, referring to scholarly works and not classroom textbooks. "It seems to me there is materialŠthat provides grounds for terminating the contract. That is, if the contract says that they have to provide us with a first-rate bookstore and if they clearly haven't, in comparison with other colleges and universities, then we should not be bound until the year 2020."

Errol Meidinger, professor of law, questioned UB's record of negotiating with private-service providers. If the UB Foundation is negotiating these kinds of contracts, he said, "there's a soft system of accountability, and that may be part of our problem."

He also criticized another private provider, the Bluebird bus system, calling its treatment of students "really appalling."

The topic of private-service providers may not be an appropriate topic of action for the Faculty Senate, "but somewhere we ought to be applying pressure because I have this sense that once it's farmed out to the private sector, nobody gets rewarded for riding herd and for negotiating a strong contract," Meidinger said. He added that with the memorandum of understanding, it's questionable whether the university could cancel its contract with Follett.

Nickerson said he's heard that a bookstore will be locating in the former Chinese restaurant on Maple Road near campus. "If that's true, there may be some competition," he said.

Jason Hobson, treasurer of the Graduate Student Association, said that he had heard that the bookstore "gives a 10 percent kickback to the UB Foundation. That's my impression that it was in the UB Foundation's interest to keep Follett," he said.

Noble said she and Nickerson were told by the manager of the South Campus bookstore-a Follett bookstore that is located on Main Street across from campus but is not covered by the memorandum of understanding-that that store continues to pay UBF a fee, even though it is no longer an official campus bookstore.

UBF is receiving a lot of money from the bookstores and "they're not using it to reduce the price of books to students," Noble charged. "They might be using it invest in other semi-privatization arrangements."

The fees, she said, are being used to "strengthen the power and influence of the UB Foundation, and not influence the quality of life on campus."

Edward Schneider, associate vice president for development systems and operations, denied that the foundation receives a 10 percent kickback from Folletts. He declined further comment.

In other business, Ronald Stein, vice president for university advancement and development, outlined the university's development efforts, including a capital campaign whose public phase is expected to begin in 1999 and this year's faculty and staff solicitation.

The capital campaign, dubbed "The Campaign for UB," is in the first of three phases, Stein said. During this infrastructure phase, academic priorities are identified, individual statements and unit plans are drafted, appropriate staff is hired and the process of identifying and cultivating campaign prospects is begun.

The second phase, the nucleus phase, will be begun by university units at different times, he said. During this phase, the university will be seeking leadership gifts. Six academic units are scheduled to begin this phase on July 1.

The third phase, the public phase, will begin once UB has obtained commitments equal to one-third to one-half of the campaign's working goal of $250 million, he said. That phase is expected to begin sometime in 1999.

Stein noted that faculty will be asked to help identify successful alumni from their areas who might be approached for gifts. He cited a study done at Yale University that found that donors who gave gifts of $25,000 or larger did so because of "the relationship between that alum and a faculty member at the school."

Michael Shippam, senior director of development, updated senators on the faculty and staff appeal, which is set to begin the week of March 3 and conclude the week of April 21.

While there is no formal goal for the Faculty and Staff Appeal, which is part of the university's Annual Appeal, development officers hope to surpass the $23,000 raised last year.

Shippam said he hopes the faculty and staff appeal will increase the visibility of development initiatives and the Annual Appeal within the university community; increase the percentage of participation by the university community in the Annual Appeal; increase the dollars raised for the Annual Appeal from the university community, and increase the number of non-alumni President's Associates who give annual gifts of $1,000 or more.

Robert Wetherhold, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, wondered if the stalemate in contract talks between United University Professions and the state will affect the appeal.

"A lot of people say, 'when I get my contract settledŠ,(then I'll give money to UB)'," he said. "I'm not saying it's my opinion, but this may be something that you'll have to directly address in some kind of way or maybe skirt around in some way."