Steve Griffin, St. Thomas’ dining services executive director and campus stores director discussed the bookstore’s transition into a digital era and the impact of rising food costs at the Undergraduate Student Government meeting Thursday.
When St. Thomas started using Barnes and Noble’s services in January to outsource its bookstore materials, the university received some negative feedback on the elimination of physical books in its on-campus bookstores and lack of communication on the transition, Griffin said.
“I’ll admit that, for the spring semester, we didn’t get the information,” Griffin said. “Usually Barnes and Noble comes in 6 months ahead of time to set things up, but did it in 2.5 months, so that is why not everything was where we wanted it to be yet.”
Going forward, the campus stores team will be focusing on communication through campus stores posters, the parents’ newsletter and One St. Thomas, Griffin said.
For the Fall 2025 semester, the purchasing process for students who have financial aid for textbooks will change.
Instead of purchasing books and requesting reimbursement from the bookstore, students will receive vouchers in their student accounts, Griffin said.
Griffin also addressed how rising food costs are affecting dining services and how it plans to mitigate these challenges.
“Overall, food prices have remained pretty stable, except for chicken,” Griffin said. “So, to my chefs, my executive chef, we (brainstorm) where are we going to save money?”
Food container costs have also increased, so dining services is looking for alternatives to some to-go products, Griffin said.
“You’ll see, in T’s we have sandwich wrappers that are completely compostable that are about 12 cents,” Griffin said. “That’s an easy investment.”
Cecilia Wallace can be reached at wall1238@stthomas.edu.
