Ready for you at TU: UStore staff working hard to ensure fall term starts smoothly

By Cody Boteler on July 14, 2020

This story is part of a series on how different departments at Towson University have worked over the summer to keep operations running and prepare campus for the Return to TU. 

Part of the commitment of the Return to TU is ensuring students have the materials they need to succeed in their courses, regardless of delivery mode.

To that end, the staff at the University Store has been hard at work, collaborating with faculty to make class materials available online or easily accessible at the store in the University Union, says Stacy Elofir, director of the UStore.

As campus shut down last term, the store transitioned to processing online orders. When campus dining areas shut down during the summer, the UStore re-opened The Tiger Market with limited hours so people on campus could access food and convenience items sold there. The Tiger Market is open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Thursday.

Elofir’s team also reached out to students who had to return rented textbooks, either in person or through the mail. The store extended the textbook rental period, so students would not be penalized if they were unable to return their textbooks because of the pandemic. Despite the extension, Elofir said the store had received about half of all expected rental returns as of June 30.

“We did the same work we always do, except the physical store was closed,” she says. “We’ve been pretty busy.”

Elofir says the store averages about 100 web orders per day, including textbooks, supplies and other merchandise.

As the fall term approaches, UStore staff has been encouraging students to reserve textbooks online to pick up later or have them delivered rather than coming in to browse, to keep lines from growing too long. The UStore will have a maximum capacity of 75 people when it reopens because of social distancing measures.

William Cook, a lecturer in the College of Business & Economics, says working with UStore staff to make sure all his course materials are accounted for has been “no problem at all.”

Cook teaches eight sections of EBTM 250 Problem Solving in Business in the first seven weeks of the term and four sections in the second seven weeks, he says, so hundreds of students in the e-business and technology management program have him as an instructor.

“Our classes now offer e-texts and other online materials. Registration, and access to the materials, will occur during the first day of class,” Cook says. “Being a technology-based department, we are at an advantage.”

More recently, UStore staff has been taking inventory and arranging the store so customers can remain physically distant while browsing, and plexiglass barriers have been installed to add another layer between employees and customers to help prevent transmission of the novel coronavirus.

There’s also been the work of unloading pallets of new merchandise, uploading photos of clearance items to the website and running social media and other advertising campaigns.

“There’s just been so much dedication; the entire team is amazing,” Elofir says. “There would be no store without the staff.”

This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel’s priorities for Towson University: TU Matters to Maryland and Diverse and Inclusive Campus.