What's In Store | Follett Higher Ed Follett Higher Education

More than 150 years ago, Historically Black colleges and universities opened the path to higher education for Black students. Today, HBCUs support nearly 350,000 students nationwide. This Black History Month, Follett’s Ty Beaver, an HR leader and a member of Follett’s DEIB council, sits down with Cynthia L. Gomes, Ed.D., Vice President, Business and Auxiliary Services (Clark Atlanta University) and Greg Bryant, Assistant Vice President for Auxiliary Services (Prairie View A&M University). They discuss how their campus stores support inclusion and belonging, from academics to athletics, to convenience and beyond.

New York University (NYU) is one of the world's premier universities, with campuses from Manhattan to Abu Dhabi. With a focus on best-in-class student support, their bookstores offer everything from technology and gear to an Inclusive Access program that provides affordable course materials. Today, Follett Regional Manager, Melissa Bracero, sits down with Nancy Wetmore-Mathews, who has served as Course Materials Manager at NYU for over 30 years, to discuss her perspective on NYU's unique offering.

President JoAnna Schilling of Cypress College, a public community college in Cypress, California, chats with Follett Vice President Ashlie Singleton about the Charger Book Pass program, an Equitable Access course materials program integrated in an expansive student-needs initiative. Listen in to learn more about Cypress College - which is seeing a 7% boost in enrollment this semester - and how their Charger Book Pass program supports students across the academic journey.

In this episode, we welcome Traci Gambino, Senior Director of Visual Merchandising at Follett Higher Ed, to discuss campus store transformations. Last fall, Traci and her team launched a "roadshow" to reimagine visual merchandising at campus stores across the country. Today, you’ll hear from store managers at two of those stores — Lucy Jones at Xavier University and Joyce Freeman at Bethune Cookman University — to discuss how these changes have improved the shopping experience, driven sales, and inspired their campus communities.

Listen in as Dr. Mike Moore, the academic research scientist known for his work on the impact of Inclusive and Equitable Access, discusses his latest findings: programs that guarantee affordable access to course materials on day one lead to higher course completion rates across the board. Interview conducted by Ryan Petersen, President of Follett Higher Education.