Rising to the Challenge: One Store’s Response

Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, has not yet decided about classes, but the Syracuse University Bookstore has already taken some steps, according to Director Roger Hailstork:

We as a store are operating on spring break hours for the rest of the month. Syracuse University has not announced as of yet if they will close for the entire spring so we are still uncertain if there will be classes hosted back on campus.

We are closing one hour earlier each day and will not be open on weekends. We will determine in a week or so (dependent on traffic) how we will handle student and temporary employees. Our university has asked us all to not make drastic cuts to student hours if they are available to work. We will have local students still here that we will still need during the reduction. We will try to be as considerate as possible for all employees because this is an action that can have real negative effects on people’s lives and we want to be sensitive to that.

We are in the spring term now and we end the semester the third week of April. We have begun to return textbooks to the publishers. We have an increasing larger number of digital options which goes hand in hand with the university’s decision.

Right now, our students can remain and are simply on spring break. It depends on the final university announcement on the status of the remainder of the semester but what we will do is make sure students know the availability of digital books if they have not received them yet and try to facilitate possibly a discounted purchase for them wherever they are residing. We also oversee the student summer storage services. We have asked our partner vendor to remain on high alert just in case we have many students wanting to just leave and place their belongings in storage now.

No, however what we are doing is looking to waive any fees associated (local delivery fees) with things that happen to students related to the university actions. It’s important that in no way we look like we are profiting from anything occurring. For instance, we do not deliver to nonuniversity housing (apartments), however, we have waived that prohibition and will not charge a delivery fee. We must remember a lot of students are not going anywhere because they have 12-month leases and may not have the means to travel. So, they will be here and possibly need our services.