IU outsourcing plans part of growing nationwide trend

Mark Winstead, manager of the Wright Place food court, gathered a few of his employees last week and suggested they update their resumes.\nThis is in the wake of further chatter among trustees that the privatization of current in-house operations could ease the University's financial burdens. Already up for private bidding are the IU Motor Pool and the IU Bookstore, and trustees said it was likely dining services would follow in the spring.\nDespite objections by some staff members who fear they will join the ranks of America's unemployed following a private takeover, the University's interest in outsourcing is among a rising trend.\nMitzi Shrum, an employee within the Wright Place food court, is worried about losing her job if IU eventually opens dining services to private bidders.\n"My job would not be in jeopardy at first," Shrum said, explaining that although a private corporation would initially want to bring in new personnel at the management level it would be impossible for them to make significant changes in the lower levels because current staff would know how to run the operation.\nShrum added she believed once new managers learned how to operate the food courts they would lay off many of the current employees in hopes of slashing the "bottom dollar." \nWinstead agreed and said he would expect new management within many of the dining services should the University outsource.\n"We had our managers meeting last week, and for the most part, we thought most of the employees would be safe," he said. "It would be us who would be replaced."\nEven beyond the planning and speculation of University officials' potential actions, both the motor pool and bookstore are accepting bids from private companies for control. If IU decides to contract with one of these corporations, it will join a growing list of universities that have chosen to privatize their on-campus bookseller.\nIU will likely receive several bids for control of the University bookstore as the Dec. 22 deadline approaches. Corporate mega-booksellers -- riding high on a tidal wave of success in the wake of a growing trend in university outsourcing -- will look to land another contract as more than 1,500 corporate-controlled university bookstores have popped up across the country, according to the National Association for College Stores' Web site.\n"We don't expect to receive any offers until Dec. 22," IU Trustee President Stephen Ferguson said. "Typically that is the way companies will handle things."\nIncreased bookstore outsourcing might still be a relatively new trend in the often-bureaucratic world of academia, but it already has had a significant impact on the way universities do business.\nJust in the past 10 years, the number of universities choosing to privatize their bookstore operations has increased by about 60 percent, according to the association's Web site.\nDespite the speedy growth, only two companies operate most private university bookstores: Barnes and Noble and the Follett Corporation. Currently, 34 percent of U.S. universities have privatized their bookstores, according to the same Web site.\nA number of reasons could account for such growth, said Cliff Ewert, vice president of public and campus relations for the Follett Corporation. He said along with reducing costs, outsourcing university bookstores has risen in popularity because the bigger corporations were able to specialize.\n"We bring expertise," he said. "The only thing we do is operate bookstores. Because of that we are able to offer a high level of service and a lot of technology. We allow universities to get back to concentrating on what they do best: academics."\nAlthough the University has allowed companies to submit proposals, Ferguson said IU is not necessarily "set in stone" on the idea of outsourcing any service. He said the University would agree to contract services such as the bookstore and dining services only after it has examined all offers.\nFerguson said any money the University saved through privatizing would go directly to IU's academics. He said some of the cash would go toward either renovating Ballantine Hall or possibly constructing a new academic building for the humanities at the University, but he also stressed it was still too early to know anything definite.\nShrum said even though outsourcing might be a good way to generate funds, the University should look at selling off the sectors that were costing the most money, unlike the bookstore and dining services, which are self-sustaining enterprises because of their costs to students.\n"We are efficient," she said. "There are so many other parts of the University that are so inefficient. They should look at outsourcing them"