The orion Vol 72 Issue 16

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MAKING MARKS

The men and women’s track and field team are heading to Michigan for the NCAA Championships. See Page B3

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Wildcat Store could be privatized The Associated Students is negotiating a contract with Follett Corporation to privatize, sparking concerns with buying power at the local level and employee retention. Ernesto Rivera

Editor-in-Chief

The Associated Students may be signing away the Chico State Wildcat Store to Follett Corporation, a private textbook corporation based in Illinois. The Associated Students board of directors approved to lease the Wildcat Store Monday at a special meeting. If the contract with the corporation is signed, the

store will begin its transition to new management July 1. Follet will enter a 5-year lease, the company will not rename the store and will give the A.S. a commission based on sales. The move comes after the Wildcat Store has suffered years of financial losses. “We’ve known about declining bookstores for a long time,” said Jacob Arbogast, A.S. vice president for business and finance. “We’ve some issues with our inventory.” If the A.S. had not decided to lease the Wildcat Store, it would have budgeted a loss of $130,000 throughout the next two years, said David Buckley, executive director of the A.S. Outsourcing the store

means the A.S. would not have to subsidize the store with a student-based fee, increase prices of AS food services or dip into its reserves to keep it financially stable. Keeping the store under A.S. management was a discussion members of the board considered. “We don’t have something that we feel confident that we can invest into that can keep the store sustainable and whole,” said Taylor Herren, A.S. president. Follet’s sales pitches to the A.S. included investment in digital technology including integration with Blackboard and digital course materials. A concern with turning over management to Follett was the loss of buying

power by local management such as the store director. Employees and the A.S. board of directors said they wanted to keep local Chico products like Klean Kanteen, ChicoBag products and University Farm products. Rob Meyers, director of the Wildcat Store, was previously the assistant director of the Arizona State University bookstore when the store was outsourced to Follett. Meyers said during his time with ASU, the store struggled to get local products. “I think if you do go with Follett and you do want to keep Klean Kanteen and Chico-

» please see bookstore | A3

Curve poses threat Residents on Bidwell Avenue are no strangers to drivers going off the road and into Big Chico Creek. Mozes Zarate

Managing Editor

The Orion ∤ Photograph by Chelsea Jeffers

Extraordinary art blazes, stuns at Matador Motel Ring of fire Members of the Lumininjas harmoniously performing their fire routine at the Art at the Matador Saturday.

Tom Bailey, an 87-year-old Chico man, said that his wife could tell by the hum of the engine at night whether a passing car would make the curve or fly off into the creek. Off the beaten path of Nord Avenue’s busy intersections is Bidwell Avenue, a winding neighborhood street that runs alongside Big Chico Creek. It’s a thrill seeker’s road at night, riddled with blind turns and scarce in street lamps, reflectors and guard rails to guide newcomers away from the creek’s steep embankment. The road’s many curves have their history of crashes, mostly caused by people driving too fast and too drunk, said Gary Quiring, who’s lived in the neighborhood since the 1950s. On January 27, three Chico State students were heading westbound on Bidwell Avenue at an unreported speed and failed to make the same curve Bailey’s wife could listen for. The car, a 1998 BMW, crashed into the creek, turning over and coming to rest on its roof a few feet away from the water, accord-

MORE ON THEORION.com/arts View the full gallery and read the article on the art event at Matador Motel .

» please see curve | A3

Campus prepares for new commencement limitations Enrique Raymundo

Staff Writer

With commencement looming around the corner, Chico State and local hotels are preparing for the storm that will come with the families of tens of hundreds of graduating students. A controversial ticket policy is new to this year’s commencement ceremony and was set in place to address emergency safety concerns at an over-packed University Stadium, said spokesperson Joe Wills. Each student is allowed free tickets to a maximum of five per student at a first-comefirst-served basis, with redistribution options if there are extras available. “We knew that restricting the number of people who could enter the stadium would affect people who would bring a lot of family members,” Wills said. The number of complaints over commencement has gone up since the first announcement, said Director Susan Anderson of the Alumni and Parent Relations office, which has been in charge of commencement proceedings. The complaints have almost all been about the new ticketing policy. Some students have taken to buying and selling tickets, with many tickets going at a range of $75 to $100 and some as low as a

single dollar. Anderson said she has posted a warning to craigslist.com saying that tickets can only be used once and if multiple copies of the same ticket are printed out, only the first one will admit its holder to the ceremony. Other posters had similar warnings. “Each ticket has a unique barcode and when the ticket is scanned, it uses that ticket up,” Anderson said. “If someone were to make copies of that ticket to sell, that first ticket use would be used and the rest would be directed to the overflow area at Glenn lawn. So use extreme caution. If you don’t know the person, you don’t know if the ticket is going to work.” While Alumni and Parent Relations has no official stance on the buying and selling of tickets, Anderson said she does not feel that it is right to do. The university currently has a system where unused tickets can be returned to the pool and made available to those who want more. “If people are out there, keeping their tickets and selling them for profit, then those tickets can’t be cycled and redistributed for free to those who need them,” she said. Both ceremonies will be televised and streamed to the overflow area and Performing Arts Center. Saturday’s graduation is currently packed and between 250 to 500

Index

chairs will be set out in the overflow area on either graduation day, according to Alumni and Parent Relations. Sunday’s ceremony has an estimated two hundred unclaimed tickets for the Performing Arts Center viewing area, which she said might be a good option for those who want a climate-controlled viewing experience. The tickets will be redistributed very soon, according to Alumni and Parent Relations. All hotel rooms in time for graduation at the Courtyard Marriott and Residence Inn are reserved with a wait list of over 100 people for cancellations, said hotel sales manager Brook Smith. The ticket issue has not had much of an impact on the reservations, as only one or two cancellations made mention of the ticket scarcity. Smith said the hotel has already received calls about the 2015 graduation, asking for details on ticket policy and room availability for the coming year. Smith said the hotel has already received calls about the 2015 graduation, asking for details on ticket policy and room availability for the coming year. Enrique Raymundo can be reached at

newseditor@theorion.com or @theorion_news on Twitter.

Inside

Corrections

A2

Sports

B1

Weather

A2

Directory

B3

Police Blotter

A4

Features

B5

Opinion

A6

Sex Column

B7

TODAY

LIVE EVERYDAY LIKE IT’S

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The Orion ∤ Photograph by ANNIE PAIGE

tassel hassle Evelyn Hernandez, child development major and soon to be graduate, picks up her cap and gown from the Wildcat Store. Hernandez is excited to graduate but said it has been hard to deal with the seating situation. “I had to choose my family over my fiancée,” she said. “That’s been the hardest part.”

Opinion

Sports

Features

Columnist Veronica De La Cruz takes on Comcast’s poor service and increasing control over the Internet.

For the sixth time in 12 years the Chico State men’s golf team is heading to the NCAA finals.

Working Wildcat Ariel Hernandez gives advice to graduates transitioning into their new careers.

Column A6

Story B3

Story B6

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