How Will Overtime Rules Affect Students?

The Obama administration released rules that will require employers, including colleges and universities, to pay overtime to more employees. The new regulation, which becomes effective on Dec. 1, increases the salary threshold for employees eligible for overtime from $23,660 to $47,476.

Many in higher education are concerned about the potential impact on student services and instruction. There are exemptions to the rule related to higher education, but those are primarily for employees providing instruction.

“The new rule will increase many lower-level, salaried employees into hourly workers who are eligible for overtime pay. But requiring such a dramatic and costly change to be implemented so quickly will leave many colleges with no choice but to respond to this regulation with a combination of tuition increases, service reductions, and, possibly, layoffs,” the American Council on Education said in a press release criticizing the rules.

The rules are expected to have a significant impact on college store management, so NACS is partnering with the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources to present a webinar at 1 p.m. Eastern May 25 on the new regulations. The webinar is free, but advanced registration is required.

Need to Know About OER? Cram It

The concept of open educational resources (OER) is simple—materials are made available for all to reuse and possibly adapt, often at no fee—but putting the concept into action for college courses is a bit more complicated. How can schools efficiently get these materials to students?

OER Cram Session, hosted by NACS on Nov. 18-20, will offer a three-day schedule of live webinars and audio conferences featuring case studies, solutions, and ideas for effective management and distribution of open resources. Any professional in higher education can take part in any or all of these free events, although registration is required for each webinar in order to provide log-in details.

Several webinars focus on how campus stores are helping to facilitate the use of open resources at their institutions. Although many resources can be accessed online for free, faculty may request assistance in collating links for students or downloading materials into the school’s system. To accommodate students who prefer to study from hardcopies, stores have also been able to provide inexpensive print versions of OER materials.

In addition to the live events, a variety of free resources on OER—background information, links to repositories and programs, and articles—are also available from the Cram Session.

NACS members will also be able access recordings of the live events later on The Hub, NACS’ online connected community.

Happy National Student Day!

Today is the inaugural National Student Day, a day celebrating and promoting college students’ social responsibility. More than 500 college stores across the United States and Canada are holding celebrations recognizing their students. Some of the events taking place include food drives, giveaways, and even a pet adoption. Visit the National Student Day Facebook page often over the next few weeks to see pictures of the celebrations.

Also, the National Student Day contest will close on Oct. 14 at 5pm EST. We have more than 100 stories! If you haven’t already, take a few minutes to read some of the entries as some of them are very heartwarming.

CAMEX and digital course materials

Publisher's Weekly had an article this week on CAMEX and the emphasis on a future of online business, including digital course materials. The article briefly captures some of the current initiatives underway within NACS Media Solutions and its partners.

Students prefer print to digital

Yet another study found that roughly 75% of students prefer print to digital. The recent BISG study, Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education, mirrors similar earlier findings by both the Student PIRGs and NACS. The NACS data went beyond this particular finding to ask if student preference for print over digital was their primary reason not to buy digital. The NACS data saw a significant shift in recent years away from this preference being the primary reason not to buy -- with the availability of digital inventory and faculty preference and usage of print over digital quickly growing among the top reasons why students choose to buy print over digital.

Among other interesting stats from the BISG study 60% of students say they place a high value on their textbooks, and roughly 65% of those are still buying their textbooks from the college store. While promising, this does suggest significant loss of market share among college stores over the past decade. In fact the BISG study found that 20% of students are buying their textbooks from Amazon.com, and more than 40% said they bought a textbook from a pirate site or know others who have. Price and convenience are key drivers in this shift -- similar to the factors that initially stimulated piracy in the music industry.

Regardless, these data points should be leading collegiate retailers to ask some tough questions about their product mix, the return of revenues, market share retention, and how they compete online.

Textbook rental programs proliferating on campus

Last fall, 2,200 college stores reported offering textbook rental programs, up from only 300 just a year earlier, according to OnCampus Research, a division of NACS.

Demand for lower textbook prices from both consumers and legislators has spurred college stores to explore new ways of doing business. By renting, students generally pay only 33%-55% of the full price of a textbook.

Based on the results of their initial forays, two-thirds of the stores participating in the OnCampus survey said they plan to expand their rental offerings. Of the responding stores that didn’t offer a rental program, 43% said they plan to launch one. In addition, another 200 chain-managed college stores will add rental programs for the spring semester.

"This means that almost 2,400 college stores are currently offering textbook rentals, and more than 3,000 should be offering textbook rental by next fall,” says Charles Schmidt, NACS director of public relations.

The Looming Wave

This month’s, The College Store magazine features an article written by Mark entitled, “The Looming Wave.” The article is a must read for college stores as it discusses how digital is affecting the college store industry today and what we can expect in the near future. The article points out that digital course materials will not replace print overnight but they will likely have an impact on course material sales beginning this fall and a growing impact within the next several years. Many college stores are not yet prepared for the effect that digital will have. There is still time to prepare but everyday that goes by without a plan is time lost that could have been used to secure market share for the future. Stores must use this time to participate in environmental scanning and monitor the competition as there are many potential new entrants vying for a piece of the market. It is hoped that NACS’ efforts will help address the market forces affecting the industry but more efforts may be required, particularly on the part of individual stores or other groups, in order to successfully transition to the college store of the future.

New digital content analyst at NACS

Today Liz Looney starts at NACS as digital content analyst. Liz is a graduate of RPI and has been a consultant for the past four years at Deloitte. She brings a number of useful skills and experiences to the position. She will be located here in Albany, NY with me and assisting me with education and environmental scanning work. One of her responsibilities will be to assist me with the daily postings to this blog -- so expect the regularity of postings to improve as she gets up to speed. We are looking to create a formal office here in Albany over the coming months -- to help both with NACS Media Solutions work and facilitate work between Liz and me.

Everyone, please join me in welcoming Liz to the NACS staff.

NACS announces digital content pilots

In a story from last Friday's Campus Marketplace, NACS announced the first pilots for NACS Media Solutions, the new digital LLC initiative launched back at the end of June. The first pilots will be focused primarily on entertainment content, specifically commercial TV and movies (new release to long tail). We are working on expanding the content and capabilities for the Spring and are interested in talking with potential partners, especially for content. An RFP for regional and local print-on-demand capabilities is expected to be released in mid-October.

The first round of pilots are expected to be launched between mid-October and mid-November, and will focus on seven locations. The initial pilot stores include:

• Aztec Shops Ltd., San Diego State University Bookstore, CA
• CU Book Stores,, The University of Colorado-Boulder, CO
• New York University Book Stores, NY
• T.I.S. College Bookstore , University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, IL
• Student Stores, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
• Bowling Green State University Bookstore, OH
• UCLA Store, CA.

I would like to reiterate my thanks and appreciation to these stores for participating in the first round of pilots. I would also like to extend thanks to the other stores who volunteered. I hope that we can add many or all of you into pilots and participation soon. In Spring 2009 NACS Media Solutions plans to grow the number of pilot and partnering stores to 20-30 sites to expand the diversity of institutions and store types participating. Full offerings to the NACS membership is anticipated beginning in summer and fall of 2009.

A prior posting on this blog provides information from the original announcement of the new LLC.

Innovate! Online

If you missed the Innovate! 2008 conference live in Minneapolis earlier this summer, you have another opportunity to see and hear some of what took place. Participants will also have opportunities to interact and network with their peers around the content.

NACS developed the Innovate 2008 Conference to help college stores explore their environment, promote their role in the marketplace, and create new models for doing business. Via the Internet, the Innovate 2008 Online Conference, Oct. 20-23, makes the Innovate 2008 in-person learning experiences accessible to those unable to attend the live event.

To register or for more information, go to www.nacs.org/public/events/innovateonline/.

NACS Board Greenlights Digital Content Venture

Many of you will have seen (or will soon see) the article in today's Campus Marketplace which announces an exciting new initiative in the digital content space for college stores. This new venture is an important component in implementing the strategic goals for the digital content area approved by the NACS Board earlier this year. Those goals were outlined in a prior post to this blog. Both those goals and this model grow out of ideas and discussions that surfaced in other initiatives, such as the Forum on New Modes of Information Delivery NACS co-hosted with EDUCAUSE and ACRL back in March 2007.

There is still much work to be done and we are very interested in talking with content providers in course materials and digital content, as well as some potential partners on the infrastructure side. In the coming weeks and months I will post more information about the initiative here and answer questions submitted to me where possible. We are still working out many of the technology and content partnerships, but approval by the NACS Board for the conceptual business design and model is a key step forward in providing stores with an easy, affordable, and scalable solution to digital content delivery on campus. We see opportunities for stores whether they be institutional, organizational, independent, private, or contract managed. The platform created by the new venture will ultimately give stores new opportunities to provide products and services to students and faculty, and open doors for new conversations with campus libraries, technology units, and other campus constituents.

This initiative is also being announced by Melanie Sparks, President of the NACS Board, in her opening remarks at Innovate! 2008 which begins today. More on that in this weekend's postings.

Trustees Set Strategy for Digital Course Materials

My thanks to the group of individuals on the NACS Digital Content Strategic Planning Task Force. The work product created in the time available was great, and was recently approved at the NACS Board meeting at CAMEX. We posted a summary article online today.

The document produced is really more of a strategic vision document than a plan, although it does contain some specific action items. More generally, the plan outlines three priority areas for activity and action: strategic partnerships, enhanced trade infrastructure, and education and awareness. Each of the areas has 4-5 action areas, with generally two items being identified as top priority within each area. A copy of the full document is currently available to NACS members only.

Here is an overview of the priorities, without some of the added detail and description that goes with each. Certainly I welcome discussion or ideas about how to implement any of these items or on the direction itself:

Partnerships
1. (Top priority) Enhance relations and partnerships with publishers and CourseSmart.
2. (Top priority) Assist stores with campus-based partnerships with multiple constituent groups.
3. Enhance industry relations among other trade and retail organizations.
4. Continue developing new partnerships and relationships with a range of organizations.

Enhanced Trade Infrastructure
1. (Top priority) Reposition stores as an essential course materials information center on campus.
2. (Top priority) Create a suite of business models for stores of all shapes and sizes.
3. (Top priority) Assertively pursue improved retail technology offerings for the industry.
4. Engage in more formal knowledge management activities.
5. Continue to explore and consider new and innovative models for the association.

Education and Awareness
1. (Top priority) Develop and implement new approaches to digital content education.
2. (Top priority) Use more of the “store voice” to raise industry awareness.
3. Develop education that places greater emphasis on strategic thinking and planning.
4. Develop basic programs on digital content and e-commerce.