
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 19, 1994                   TAG: 9401210004
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RU WON'T BE RUNNING ITS OWN BOOKSTORE

A handful of part-time employees at the Radford University bookstore could lose their jobs when the school turns the money-losing operation over to a private contractor, probably by spring.

Still, the new bookstore operator will be required, under contract, to maintain the store's seven salaried full-time employees with full benefits for a year. And whoever takes over also will stem the store's financial bleeding. The university-operated store has lost $89,704 in the last four years, said Charles W. King, Radford's vice president for business affairs.

Comparing the change to a higher educationwide shift to contracted food service 20 years ago, King and other university officials said a new bookstore operator likely will be chosen by the first of February. Until a decision is made, details of the contract negotiations remain private.

However, three nationally known companies that run college and university bookstores responded to a request for bids put out a month ago, and visits to operations run by the two finalists are scheduled for this weekend.

Whoever takes over is expected to widely expand the used book selection, which cuts the notoriously high cost of textbooks 25 percent.

``We try to get all the used books we can, but the amount of used books we get a lot of times depends on how big a store we have,'' said Bill Dalton, director of business services. ``Large companies control the books anyway.

``There's kind of a battle to get as many used books as you can.''

Upwards of 50 part-time employees are hired during rush business, which comes at the first of each semester. Dalton said the committee will ask the new bookstore operator to interview existing part-timers.

``I don't think there's going to be anyone losing jobs because a contract bookstore will need employees to run the bookstore, just like we do,'' said Dalton.

Statewide, Old Dominion University, George Mason University and Longwood College have contract-operated bookstores. At Virginia Tech, a 25-year-old nonprofit corporation runs the bookstore, along with other campus retail operations. Virginia Tech Services is run by a 12-member board, and funnels profits back into student services, from scholarships to the Squires Student Center renovation completed in recent years. Don Williams, who runs Tech Services, said the corporation has returned $17 million over its history.

Radford University's in-town competition, Felix Books & Gifts, is not expecting any real impact to its textbook sales as a result of the switch, said owner Norman Lepchitz.

``This is nothing new,'' he said. ``Lots of colleges and universities contract out their bookstores with no impact on the people who compete.''

A six-person campus committee has run Radford's search.

by CNB