Graduation Day At DU!

Today is Graduation Day at the University of Denver. Graduate Commencement Ceremonies were held yesterday, while Undergraduate Ceremonies take place today. I was the Finance Manager of the DU Bookstore for many years before the store was outsourced to Follett Higher Education Group, and this was an important time for the bookstore. For one thing, we took the orders for cap and gown rentals, not to mention class rings, graduation announcements, and other items, in conjunction with Josten's and their sales rep. It was also the biggest book buy of the year, and we had three Nebraska Book Company reps buying books from students, with lines out the door, during finals week, leading up to graduation. For both the graduate and undergraduate ceremonies, the merchandise manager and her work study assistants would bring huge amounts of clothing, gifts, and miscellaneous items over to Magness Arena, where the ceremonies were held, and seen in the photograph above. They would sell those items to the graduates and their guests at tables set up at the entrance to the arena. I think I checked last year, and Follett had no such table, and since they are being replaced by Barnes and Noble College at the end of this month, I suspect they still won't this year, either. And as I remember, by Saturday afternoon, the DU Bookstore was completely empty of customers, and more or less stayed that way until mid-August. As far as I can tell, ever since Follett took over the DU Bookstore in 2012, that's the way it looked year-round, and so I suspect they never noticed the difference. Goodbye and good riddance, Follett! And Happy Graduation, all you DU graduates!