Bookstore priorities

My husband is a proud graduate of the University of New Brunswick at Saint John; I am a graduate of and doctoral student at the University of Maine. Though we both agree that we each received a fine undergraduate education, just for fun we occasionally argue over who has the finest alma mater.

Although I generally argue for my own institution, each November he gets to say, “I told you so.” Each November, when less-capitalistic Canadians begin to prepare for Christmas, the bookstore at the University of Saint John at New Brunswick issues its holiday shopping catalog; a catalog filled with, can you believe this, books.

This fall the UMaine Bookstore (and by extension the university) has disappointed me not once, but three times. First, in September the bookstore opened its new doors. It is a beautiful space. And so I asked myself, “So what if you are inundated with university sportswear, toothpaste, deodorant and snacks when you walk in? So what if you have to walk around the corner to find any books? There are books, lots of them, and they are beautifully displayed (if you find your way back there). It’s a nice bookstore. Still, it felt somewhat backward.”

Next, I received in my university mailbox a flier announcing the grand opening celebration of the newly renovated bookstore. During the weeklong celebration, students at this institution of higher learning (and other shoppers, one imagines) can sign up to win prizes in the store’s daily drawings. If you should happen to be in the store (buying a pair of UMaine mittens?), you might win a duffel bag or a UMaine black bear. You might win a Sony cordless telephone set or a GE 2-way radio set. You might win a Sony CD/radio/cassette recorder.

Or, if you are a really lucky shopper, at this, the bookstore of our area’s largest and most prestigious university campus, you might win the grand prize of a 27-inch Toshiba stereo color TV. You will not, if I understand the flier, win a book. Not a single book. Or if you might, I guess, this trivial fact is not worth mentioning.

In mid-October, I received the bookstore’s Christmas catalog; a beautiful, multi-page color catalog printed on glossy paper. It contains pages and pages of pictures of fine gifts you can purchase from the bookstore for your holiday gift giving. Clothing and glassware. Nowhere in its pages is there a single book.

I am a proud graduate of UMaine. I tout this flagship campus of the university system as a strong institution of higher learning. But something is amiss. This bookstore business has me up in arms. Who is running that place anyway? And does the bookstore have a mission statement? In its place as representative of the university, the bookstore has a responsibility that extends beyond making money.

The university is not a keg party or an extended athletic camp, and the bookstore should not simply peddle shot glasses and sportswear. As near as anyone can tell from looking at bookstore advertising, this campus is not an institution of learning, and that is not a bookstore. Get your priorities straight, or at least find a new name.

Tanya Baker lives in Bangor.