Mr. Moreau described some of the changes that the bookstore has instituted to make it more customer friendly to students and faculty. The extension of Saturday hours to 4 p.m. has been very successful. The bookstore is considering extending the hours they are open during the rush period at the beginning of the semester. They plan to add five registers to speed checkout during this time. Mr. Moreau indicated that the faculty are being especially slow in getting their orders into the bookstore for the spring semester. He noted that the deadline was October 15 th. To date only 43% of faculty have submitted their required textbooks. (At this time last year 60% of the faculty had contacted the bookstore with their orders). This late notification makes it difficult for the bookstore to get the materials in a timely fashion and makes it especially difficult to locate sources of used books. Making used books available for students saves the students 25% of the cost of a new book so faculty procrastination can make books more expensive for their students.

A question was asked about the cost of faculty course packets. Mr. Moreau indicated that the campus print shop was very competitive with off campus companies and that the campus print shop does a very nice job. One of the main things that can drive up the cost of course packets is if the bookstore has to pay for copyrighted materials to be included in the packet. The cost of the packet depends on what the professor wants to include and how elaborate the packet is (covers, shrink wrapped, spiral bound, use of color, etc.)

Mr. Moreau distributed a brochure for the campus "Distinguished Voices" lecture series and announced that the bookstore was one of the underwriters for the series. He is hoping to link book signing events to the lecture series as well as to facilitate more book signings at the bookstore by campus and local Jacksonville authors. He would like the bookstore to be more involved with the campus in general.

Mr. Moreau also distributed copies of Acumen, the Follett newsletter for faculty. The August 2004 issue has an explanation about the cost of textbooks and the vagaries of sourcing textbooks from non-U.S. publishers.

Mr. Smyth spoke to the general costs of building parking garages. All parking facilities must be funded locally. The escalating costs of the parking decals are part of the planning process to accumulate funds for future parking facilities. The garages are built using a 30 year bonding process. Financial planning includes a 3% inflation rate. Planning for a 1,000 space garage at today's cost is 10 million dollars, with inflation, the cost of the next garage (planned for 2008) may well be 11.5 million dollars. In these garages, one parking space costs $10,000. Surface parking can be created at a lower cost. The north parking lot was created at a cost of $2,000 per parking space or a total cost of 2 million dollars.

Dr. Rao announced that the next meeting will have Karen Reedy, Executive Director of the Academic Center for Excellence, as a guest. That meeting is scheduled for Tuesday November 30 th, 1:30-2:30 in the Faculty Association meeting room.

Dr. Rao distributed a list of the support services on campus. The committee agreed with his assessment that the Support Services Committee would benefit by talking with representatives from the following committees over the course of the next meetings: Center for Professional Development and Training; Environmental Health and Safety; Facilities Planning; Library; Office of Faculty Enhancement; and, Sponsored Research. Dr. Rao will arrange for guests to attend from these areas to talk with the committee.

Meeting adjourned at 2:15 p.m.

Submitted,
Verna Urbanski,
Secretary to the Committee