At its general body meeting last night, members of the Undergraduate Council of Students meeting listened to a report by the chair of the Bookstore Review Committee and discussed a possible reversal of the current ban on postseason football play in the Ivy League.
Elizabeth Huidekoper, chair the Bookstore Review Committee and executive vice president for finance and administration, and Walter Hunter, vice president for administration, spoke about their concerns and hopes for the future of the bookstore.
"Everybody wants to maintain the good pricing that we get, as well as the high quality," Huidekoper said. She suggested that outsourcing the bookstore to a large company such as Barnes and Noble College Booksellers or Follett could improve the efficiency and ambience of the store.
"Everyone feels that the layout and use of space isn't what it could be," she said.
Huidekoper said she understands the concern of many students and community members, who fear outsourcing the bookstore would have a negative effect on the local economy and the independent atmosphere of the store. She maintains, however, that the benefits would outweigh - and eventually overcome - the downfalls.
UCS Vice President Zachary Townsend '08, a member of the committee, agreed that the bookstore needs improvements that only experienced booksellers can provide.
He said Barnes and Noble has "an expertise that we don't necessarily have. ... They have economies of scale that we simply don't have."
UCS and UFB Representative Cash McCracken '08 asked what would happen to the current bookstore staff if the operation were outsourced.
"We would insist that (Barnes and Noble or Follett) re-hire them, probably for at least a year," Hunter said. He added that when universities have outsourced their bookstores, the great majority of the original staff has stayed on indefinitely.
When Huidekoper and Hunter concluded, UCS turned to a discussion of "A Resolution to End the Ivy League Ban on Football Postseason Play" headed by Brian Becker '09, a UCS class representative. Becker said committees at all the Ivy League schools are currently discussing the issue.
Two members of the Brown football team spoke about why they believe their team - and the others in the Ivy League - deserve the chance to go to the playoffs.
"We lose tons of football recruits every year because we can't go to the playoffs," Nick Hartigan '06 said. He noted that every other athletic team at the University can go on to postseason competition, and he sees no reason why the football team should be treated differently. He dismissed the suggestion that allowing playoff competition would take away from athletes' study time.
"We do this for 14 weeks of the year; adding another few weeks shouldn't matter," he said. No vote on the issue was taken at the meeting.
The rest of the meeting was devoted to internal announcements, updates and suggestions.
Student Activities Chair Sara Gentile '09 motioned to constitute the religious magazine Ziggurat as a category I group, the bird-watching group Brown Boobies as a category II group, the political activist organization Common Ground as a category III group and Operation Iraqi Freedom as a category I group. All motions passed without objection.
Townsend and UCS President Sarah Saxton-Frump '07 spent a few minutes relating details of a recent meeting with President Ruth Simmons. They said that, after a drawn-out discussion, Simmons decided she would take over the process of organizing a three-week period in January during which Brown students could take courses. However, Saxton-Frump and Townsend were unable to elaborate on specific plans.
