For many University students, the last week of summer freedom consists of moving into the residence halls or a new apartment, partying, sleeping in as much as possible and, of course, purchasing textbooks. Naturally, the University Bookstore, at 13th Avenue and Kincaid Street, is always packed this time of the year as students swarm in to make their purchases.
At the beginning of every term, students rush in out of the bookstore. Many students have never bothered to look closer at the bookstore; it is more than meets the eye.
The University Bookstore is non-profit. As much as students complain about the high prices of their required texts, there isn’t any money going into the pockets of some CEO (of the bookstore’s anyway). The bookstore is an independent and locally owned bookseller and is governed by an elected Board of Directors consisting mostly of students. The bookstore also provides many job opportunities for students.
The bookstore’s employees take pride in providing service to the community and the students of the University by supplying many opportunities for students to interact with one another and the community, such as author events, a long-running tradition of bringing in authors to read and discuss their work. These events are often held in the upper floor of the bookstore, where textbooks are located.
“The big thing is to promote authors and books, which is what we’re all about,” Book Events Coordinator Laura Carroll White said. “But when we do events in the store, part of that is trying to get people to realize that we have this fabulous book department up here because a lot of times people forget that we’re even up here. They’re just here to get their textbooks or they’re running around getting coffee downstairs. We like to let people know that we’re here and that we’re set up to serve the students and the campus community.”
From Chuck Palahniuk and David Sedaris to lesser-known local authors and professors, author events have brought in a wide range of talents and subjects. This fall, White has many exciting things planned to bring in a larger audience. Beginning Friday at 7 p.m., the first author event of this school year will be about the students, of course.
“During the Week of Welcome, we’re going to have an event on student success; basically what it takes to be successful in college,” White said. “We’re going to have an author, David Conley, who wrote ‘College Knowledge,’ and Cindy Ingram, who wrote an essay for the book, ‘Kids, Have You Seen My Backpack…?,’ which is about nontraditional students. So we’re going to have a little bit of both sides of the story of what campus life is all about and what tools you can use to be successful.”
Author events can sometimes bring in as many as 150 people and are typically free.
“Having these events is not going to make us a ton of money, but it’s something that serves as a goodwill thing for the community and something that we do for the campus that is above and beyond just book selling,” General Book Buyer Colin Rea said. “We do a lot of events that are tied specifically to the University, students and staff. It’s something that this store has always prided itself on: Making an emphasis of having these events and keeping them going even though they may not necessarily be something that drives the business.”
But without the interests of students, the author events are difficult to keep up, especially as many of Eugene’s other independent bookstores shut down. But the bookstore has set goals to make sure these events don’t go up in smoke.
“We really want to start bringing in some names that go above and beyond the regional scope that we usually contend with,” Rea said.
“When Chuck Palahniuk – who’s probably the biggest name we’ve actually brought in the past few years – came here, about 500 to 600 people showed up. The vast majority of those were students and that’s great because that’s something that (the students) will get out and come to.
But that’s rare. Usually, when we have students come to an event, it’s usually because an English professor or writing professor has said, ‘If you go and write something, you’ll get extra credit.’ So, we’d like to bring in the right kind of author that will get people out here without that prodding from the faculty.”
But showing up to these events is beneficial to the students in more ways than one.
“The more people that come out to these events and support them, be it an author event or an art event because the art department does a lot of events downstairs, the better the store is off financially, and the longer we we’re going to be able to offer discounted textbooks,” Rea said. “Honestly, that is what this whole store is about. Because we make money off all of the other parts of the store, we’re able to keep the textbook prices low, and that’s what we’re always trying to stress.
But even above and beyond that, this is the students’ bookstore. We’re here for them, and we want to put on events that will be of interest to them and make their time here at college a little more interesting.”
For more information on the upcoming author events and other events the bookstore is hosting, log on to the bookstore’s Web site at www.uobookstore.com.

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