Protest Leads to Expansion for North Light

November 09, 2006

At Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California, a growing number of professors are protesting the recent transfer of management of the university bookstore to Barnes & Noble by giving their book orders to nearby North Light Books & Cafe in Cotati. As a result, co-owner Carolina Clare said, North Light plans to open an annex closer to the university to handle next semester's orders.

According to Clare, in May, when the manager of The Bookstore at Sonoma State University decided to retire, the university offered management of the store to just a few corporations. Ultimately, Barnes & Noble was contracted to take over the store. "When word got around campus that Barnes & Noble would be running the bookstore," she said, "the academic senate convened an emergency meeting [in May] and voted unanimously to ask the university administration to delay signing the contract so everyone could consider it." However, university officials were not responsive to the teachers' wishes, she added.

Soon after, a number of professors came to Clare and store co-owner Barbara Ianolli to ask if North Light could handle their book orders.

A year ago, the store dealt with 42 professors. However, for the fall 2006 semester, 68 professors out of 500 teaching at SSU ordered some 575 titles through North Light, according to Ianolli. Next semester, this number is expected to increase dramatically. "The next semester we will have the Math department, which is SSU's biggest department," Clare said. For that reason, the bookstore is opening an annex closer to the campus.

Clare said that North Light is working with Nebraska Book Company, which buys back used textbooks for resale, in order to help control the influx of end-of-semester book returns, among other things.

As for what effect the protest will have long-term, it is impossible to gauge. Clare noted that Barnes & Noble has a five-year contract. And, according to Ianolli, some students are displeased with the teachers' boycott. "They just want to be able to buy books on campus," she explained.

Nonetheless, said Clare, "I'm heartened by how the professors stood up for us in this day and age," she said. "They have to be brave to do so." --David Grogan

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