Community forum debates bookstore move

Hayley Tsukayama News Editor

Members of the Vassar community interested in having a conversation about the College’s plan to move the campus bookstore into the Juliet Café building on Raymond Avenue gave voice to their concerns in a community forum on Wednesday, April 2.

The forum began with a panel discussion giving the background of the planned bookstore move, as well as academic background on the place of a college or university in a community. Vice President for Finance and Administration Elizabeth Eismeier, Director of Human Resources Ruth Spencer, Associate Professor of Sociology Pinar Batur and Associate Professor of Sociology Leonard Nevarez sat on the panel. Batur and Nevarez also teach classes in the urban studies program, though the forum was not officially affiliated with the department.

The panel was followed by open discussion in a question and answer format. The group then adjourned into smaller groups to come up with suggestions for the future of the bookstore. Every chair had an index card on which to write ideas.

The idea for the forum began on Dec. 15, 2007, immediately preceding the College’s winter recess, when President Catharine Bond Hill sent a message announcing the bookstore’s move to the Vassar community. When students returned from winter break, the members of the Urban Studies Majors Committee had an open meeting—the group is open to all majors—and found that many of their majors were concerned about Hill’s announcement. “We all sort of gauged some campus and community confusion, when we got back, in talking to people in the community and on campus.” said Justine Ambrose ’08.

“The more we researched and talked to people,” said Naomi Fair ’08, “the more we realized that there were so many levels of the issue. It wasn’t just corporate versus non-corporate or moving versus not-moving, it was ‘What’s going on?’ or ‘Who are the players in this?’ or ‘Why don’t we get it?’ And we decided we need to ‘get it,’ because we deserve that and so does the community.”

The only direct, regular input that students have had on the decision has been through the College’s unofficial ad-hoc committee to discuss the bookstore of the future. The group also has student representatives from the Bookstore Advisory Committee, the Committee on Campus Life, the Campus Community Advisory Committee (CCAC) and the Board of Trustees’s Special Committee on the Juliet and Arlington. It is chaired by Eismeier.

Sensing a need for an open-dialogue about the move, the Urban Studies Majors Committee began researching the impetus behind the plan to move the bookstore off-campus, and speaking to many people in the Vassar, Arlington and Poughkeepsie communities.

Chloe Gutelle ’08 said that, initially, the committee found there was a lot of initial resistance specifically to the store becoming a larger Barnes & Noble. Yet she found that many of the people that they talked to—both on and off-campus—did not realize that the bookstore did not necessarily have to be managed by the chain store.

“That’s an example of something that people just sort of assumed and acted in opposition to,” Gutelle said, because they did not have access to all the information that they needed.

In fact, the College had been considering bids from two independent dealers in addition to Barnes & Noble, said Vassar Student Association (VSA) Vice President for Activities Jimmy Kelly ’09. Kelly, who contributes to the Bookstore of the Future committee as a member of CCAC, said those bidders have withdrawn their applications because of economic difficulties.

Several people have joined a Facebook group against the possibility of Barnes & Noble operating and expanding the store’s retail operation.

Nick Middlebrook, 23, a local resident and graduate of SUNY Potsdam, started the Facebook group after he heard reports the College was going replace Juliet Café’s lease and replace it with a Barnes & Noble. Middlebrook said that he heard by word of mouth that the new store was also going to include a Starbucks, something the College has explicitly promised not to do.

The group, called “Those Opposed to Barnes & Noble Coming to Raymond Ave/Collegeview Area,” has over 300 members, both from the Vassar campus and the surrounding Poughkeepsie and Arlington communities.

“Since that time,” Middlebrook said, “we’ve found out that Vassar is definitely planning a move of their current bookstore, but a Barnes & Noble has not yet been completely decided on, which gives us some hope. Many of us, however, question Vassar's ability to deny an offer made by the corporate bookseller, as any offer they make will most likely be one hard to refuse.”

Middlebrook was careful to note that “Change is not a direct goal of the group—while we would be more than happy to see things done in a manner that will best benefit both the College and the community, we are aware that Vassar will do whatever it wishes, since it does own the property.”

He added that “The majority of group members do not have a ‘big bad Vassar’ mentality, despite the fact that many residents view the campus as insular, we only wish to inform those interested in what is happening within their own community.”

This statement echoes the sentiments of student protests from early 2001, when nearly 300 students spoke out against the College’s decision to allow Barnes & Noble to manage the store’s day-to-day operations, mostly because the negotiations and decision were conducted without any student input. The bookstore had previously been run by a cooperative that welcomed student voices.

When the College changed the store into a Barnes & Noble College Division bookstore during Summer 2000, several student groups and the VSA called for the establishment of the Ad-hoc Committee for an Independent Bookstore. The Committee produced seven demands of the administration, including that the College consult with students on all future plans regarding bookstore management before signing any contracts and that it “explore independent, cooperative alternatives to management of the bookstore by Barnes & Noble,” according to the Committee’s requests from Jan. 29, 2001.

In the 2.6.01 issue of The Poughkeepsie Journal, College officials maintained that the bookstore would remain largely because “the store is still owned by Vassar College and staffed by college personnel.”

In February 2001, the College administration rejected the student demands, citing that the student cooperative bookstore was no longer making a profit and the College could not afford to maintain that arrangement. The College did, however, create the Bookstore Advisory Committee in response to student concerns.

This year’s Advisory Committee, however, was not informed of the College’s decision to move the bookstore before Hill made her announcement in December.

Communication with the administration on these issues have improved since 2001, as evidenced by the inclusion of senior administrators on Wednesday’s panel.

“The urban studies majors who invited me indicated that their main goal was to present information to interested students—where we are in the planning process, plans-to-date—that sort of thing,” said Eismeier in an e-mailed statement prior to the panel.

She also spoke about the history and planning behind the decision to move the campus store into the Juliet building.

Eismeier said she was looking forward to hearing “comments and suggestions about the plans, all of which are welcome at this point.”

Andrew Bennett ’09, who sits on the Board of Trustees Special Committee on the Juliet and Arlington, said that while he welcomes all input on the move, he asks “that everyone consider the facts before jumping to conclusions regarding the bookstore.”

In an e-mailed statement prior to the panel, Bennett said, “There are a wide variety of perspectives on the issue, and I hope to have a productive, pragmatic and well-informed debate on the issue.”

Bennett sees the bookstore move as an extension of Hill’s commitment to fostering good community relations. Other initiatives in keeping with this philosophy include the institution of the community shuttle and the creation of CCAC.

“I am actively soliciting feedback from students on the new bookstore, and I am conveying that feedback to the administration,” Bennett said. “I promise to give voice to the thoughts and ideas of students who e-mail me.”