Graduation Day At The University of Denver

Yesterday was graduation day for undergraduate students at the University of Denver. This was an important day for the DU Bookstore when I worked there as the Finance Manager, before it was outsourced to Follett Higher Education Group. The gift and clothing buyer and her staff would bring tables of gift and clothing items to the Ritchie Center, where the ceremonies take place, and sell a lot of merchandise.  Meanwhile, back at the bookstore on this day, when it was part of DU, the place was filled with students selling back their books and returning rentals. After the ceremonies, parents and their children would fill the bookstore picking out last minute items to take home. And then, by about 1:00 in the afternoon, all those customers would leave, and the store was virtually deserted except for staff for the next two and a half months. Things are much different these days. Last year I went into the Ritchie Center on graduation day, and there was no sign of the Follett-run bookstore at all. National bookstore chains do not seem as interested in going the extra mile to increase sales as institutionally owned stores are, which is not a big surprise. And instead of two graduation ceremonies, one for graduate students on Friday and one for undergraduates on Saturday, each commencement is now split into a morning and evening session, reducing the number of students by half at each ceremony. Which is a good thing, since instead of just bounding up the stairway and entering the auditorium, everyone attending the ceremony now has to line up single file and undergo security screening, including a metal detector, which takes a lot more time. And as for the bookstore, I discovered that these days many if not most students access their books online, eliminating the need to come into the bookstore to buy textbooks and sell them back at the end of the term, resulting in a lot less foot traffic. On the bright side, since these days the DU Bookstore seems to be empty of customers most of the time, the staff probably doesn't even notice a difference once the students leave for home at the end of the school year. Just the same-old same-old every day. An entirely different world in just 15 years. Regardless of that, congratulations to the Class of 2026.