Letter: ​Faculty weigh in 
on Student Stores

TO THE EDITOR:

We write today as UNC faculty who strongly support Student Stores.

The University’s decision to circulate a Request For Proposal to large corporate booksellers to explore the stores’ privatization is wrong-headed and unnecessary (see “Protestors marched to Folt’s office to oppose privatization of UNC Student Stores.”)

An RFP will certainly lead to extravagant promises from Follett and other large corporations as they compete among themselves for the lucrative concession to be an exclusive bookseller on campus.

Why should we put UNC scholarship money at risk in this way?

All of Students Stores profits currently go into our scholarship fund. How would a corporate entity with additional costs create more revenue for scholarships?

In the short term, it might be possible with higher cost books and/or funds that wouldn’t be paid to worker health care and other worker benefit packages. Over the long-term, it cannot be sustained.

We support Student Stores and its 100 year tradition on our campus.

The opportunity to support a local bookstore, while simultaneously meeting the needs of our students and the larger campus community, is one we highly value.

A store like ours in which staff of the Bull’s Head Bookshop and the textbook ordering department have nurtured close relationships with faculty is not created overnight, and cannot be replaced.

The staff has designed and created and managed diverse programs and services in response to specific local needs.

We see no need to privatize Student Stores. We stand with workers at Student Stores who have given years of service to our campus.

These professionals deserve our gratitude, not a pink slip.

Prof. Tony Perucci

Communications

Neel Ajuha

English and Comparative Literature

Bill Balthrop

Department of Communication

Susan Bickford

Political Science

Karen Booth

Women’s and Gender Studies

Kathyrn Burns

History

Emily Burrill

Department of Women’s and Gender Studies

Neal Caren

Sociology

Dana Coen

Department of Communication, Director, Writing for the Screen & Stage Minor

Altha Cravey

Geography

Elyse Crystall

English and Comparative Literature

Maria DeGuzman

English and Comparative Literature, Director of Latina/o Studies

Sarah Dempsey

Department of Communication

Arturo Escobar

Anthropology

Sue E. Goodman

Mathematics Department, Professor Emeritus

Joy Goodwin

English and Comparative Literature, & Department of Communication

Lawrence Grossberg

Department of Communication

Rob Hamilton

Department of Communication

Julia Haslett

Department of Communication

Elizabeth Havice

Geography

Glenn Hinson

Department of Anthropology

Jennifer Ho

English and Comparative Literature

Sherryl Kleinman

Sociology

Lloyd Kramer

History Department

John McGowan

Department of English and Comparative Literature

China Medel

Department of Communication

Joseph Megel

Department of Communication

Torin Monahan

Department of Communication

Aaron Moody

Geography

Stephen Neigher

Department of Communication

Gene Nichol

Law School

Don Nonini

Anthropology

Elizabeth Olson

Geography

Michael Palm

Department of Communication

Tony Perucci

Department of Communication

John Pickles

Geography

Edward V. Rankus

Department of Communication

Donald Reid

History Department

Alvaro Reyes

Geography

Michele Rivkin-Fish

Anthropology

Paul T. Roberge

Professor and Chair

Department of Linguistics

Patricia Sawin

American Studies

elin o’Hara slavick

Director of Graduate Studies, Art Department

Jay M. Smith

History

Katie Striley

Department of Communication

Francesca Talenti

Department of Communication

Neal Thomas

Department of Communication

Milada Anna Vachudova

Political Science

Ariana Vigil

Women’s and Gender Studies

Steve Wing

Department of Epidemiology

Catherine Zimmer,

Adjunct Professor of Sociology, & Research Associate Professor at the Odum Institute