Approximately 150 Brown students, faculty and staff along with East Side residents and merchants turned out for a half-hour rally yesterday to support preserving the independence of the Brown Bookstore.
The rally, which was held on the Angell Street side of the building, was organized by the Save the Bookstore Coalition, which was formed by Brown graduate students in response to a March 3 finding by the Bookstore Review Committee that operation of the bookstore should be outsourced to an external vendor.
Rally leaders signed people up for the coalition's mailing list, handed out t-shirts and distributed signs before calling up various speakers.
Those at the rally cited various reasons for their support of the bookstore's independence. "From what I've heard, Barnes and Noble is going to raise prices and is not a good deal," said Randall Rose GS, one of the rally's organizers.
"This is real important to me as an independent bookseller that we have another one in Providence because I'm going to retire one of these days and there aren't going to be any left," said Sarah Zacks, owner of Books on the Square, which is located in Wayland Square. "I doubt I'll be able to sell my bookstore, and then Brown will be the last one left. It would be really sad for me to see my friends and all those folks out of jobs," she said.
"I'm a grown-up. I know what happened to the (Harvard) Coop. It's not the Coop anymore, and Brown Bookstore is not going to be the Brown Bookstore anymore - and that's going to be a shame for the community," Zacks said.
Ward 1 City Councilman David Segal was scheduled to speak at the rally but did not attend. Jonna Iacono GS, president of the Graduate Student Council, read a resolution recently passed by the GSC. Following Iacono, Karen McAninch '74, a business agent for the United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island, spoke to the crowd.
"Universally, I hear that college bookstores run by Barnes and Noble charge more for books, do not show as lenient return policies and so on," McAninch said. "This proposal appears to be supported by top administrators. Perhaps they do not have the best interests of the students, staff and community at heart," she said.
"This must not be allowed to die, any more than the Bengal tiger or the great horned owl should be allowed to die," said Adjunct Professor of Literary Arts Robert Coover in a speech to the crowd. "This bookstore is our bookstore. It's not perfect, but it's ours, and these are our people. To hand it over to a corporate superpower would be a betrayal of Brown's innermost principles."
One bookstore employee, who asked not to be named, told The Herald she came to the rally because she is concerned about her job security.
"Working for a corporation is not good - period. We could lose our jobs. They say we're going to keep our jobs, but they could use us and just get rid of us. And we're not a part of Brown. We're not a part of the Brown community anymore," said the employee, who has worked at the bookstore for more than a decade.
"Even before this whole review committee started - and I think many of us that work here feel the same way - we've always been pro-independent bookstore," said Susan Schlesinger, an assistant buyer at the bookstore. "We really take pride in the fact that we work in an independent bookstore in an academic setting."
Schlesinger said the staff was informed about a year ago that a committee was being formed to look at different options for running the bookstore. Schlesinger said they were told there would be a decision in the fall, though the committee did not end up releasing any findings until March 3.
"It became very worrisome. Morale was very low for a very long time," Schlesinger said.
Chris Hu '06, a member of Brown's Student Labor Alliance said the SLA is trying to get the University to stop selling apparel made in sweatshops, and if the bookstore is outsourced that effort will be even more difficult.
"I've been using this bookstore for most of my professional life, and I like it. I like having it here," Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Michael Rosen said.
"I wasn't surprised (at the report) because it's come up before, and these things have a way of re-appearing," Rosen said. "I've always had reasonably good relations - not perfect - but I like the idea of an independent bookstore being here," he added.
Several protestors commented on the apparent low turnout of undergraduates at the rally.
"I expected more turnout, especially from the undergraduates," Fulya Apaydin GS said.
Sian Roberts GS, co-chair of the Save the Bookstore Coalition, however, told The Herald, "I am very pleased with the turnout. This was great."
Roberts said the coalition had utilized the resources of several undergraduate organizations, including the Brown Green Party and the SLA. She has also spoken with Undergraduate Council of Students President Sarah Saxton-Frump '07, offering to present information about the coalition's efforts to UCS. It is not yet clear if that will occur.
"We haven't had any undergraduates on our organizing committee, so we haven't felt totally tapped into that group," Roberts said.
"I have a feeling most of the undergraduates didn't know about it. ... I'm not sure how well this was publicized," Rosen said.
"For a cold windy night when all the University has gone home for the day, and the rest of the workers and local community is just getting home from work, it's a pretty good turnout," Schlesinger said.
"I think we had a pretty good cross-section of the community show up," Alex Zevin '06 said. "I think the bookstore needs to be improved, and there are problems with it but I think outsourcing is the worst thing they could do. It's a point of individuality for Brown that it have its own independent bookstore and not one run by a corporation."
