Topics: student engagement, campus bookstore, esports gear
How can campus stores participate in the gaming market? There are many ways that you can dive into these markets, but we suggest beginning with carrying video games in the store. This gives the 70 percent of student gamers a quick and easy location for purchasing new titles. It also gives new and returning students the opportunity to grab games when they come in to purchase next term’s books.
Finding ways to amplify student engagement both in the classroom and with the campus is increasingly vital to student achievement and persistence. Most students come to campus with the same goal: they want to earn their degree and graduate. However, a significant percentage of students do not persist through their entire educational journey.
Everyone on campus has a stake in student achievement — including retailers. College advisers, tutors and faculty should focus on excellence, of course. But it’s easy to overlook how non-academic settings like the college bookstore might facilitate retention and graduation. A strong collegiate retailer does more than sell textbooks and supplies. It functions as a full-fledged student service.
Research shows that students who feel a connection to their new school and other students during orientation are more likely to persist and graduate. With a national first-year retention rate of only 61%, colleges and universities can utilize orientation to help students develop that sense of fitting in and connection, which can lead to improved retention. Why is student orientation so important to student success and retention, and how does the University of Connecticut’s orientation program connect students to the University, its campus resources and fellow students.
National Tartan Day is just around the corner. On April 6, proudly display your store’s plaid merchandise and encourage students to shop in your store by hosting a fun flash sale and scavenger hunt.
In a perfect world, college students would be eager to discover what’s inside their required textbooks. They would know that the money they spent on course materials in your store was an investment in themselves — and in their future — with an invaluable pay-off. But this is not the case. Students often express hatred for course materials or any form of required reading. If they didn’t, the popular Best American Nonrequired Reading anthology series would have no audience, and collegiate retailers wouldn’t have to worry as much about textbook sales.
The average person will spend a third of their life working. With that much of our lives wrapped up in serving others, creating or selling, we need to see the purpose in what we do. Students employees aren’t different. Splitting their time between school, work, friends and sports, they want to see or understand the ways they make a difference.
If you’ve worked on a campus before, you probably don’t need anyone to tell you when finals are approaching. You know because the term is coming to an end, of course, but you also know because the atmosphere changes. The collective tension-level rises. Students behave strangely: They’re easily triggered, easily confused and sometimes downright rude. It can be a rough time for collegiate retailers and their associates. But it can also be an opportunity to burnish your store’s reputation as a refuge from the academic grind.
College stores depend on keeping a steady stream of student foot traffic throughout the year. Regular, well-planned bookstore events and sales can increase student and faculty engagement while positioning the store as a campus social hub. We recently sat down with Carissa Drake, bookstore coordinator at Riverland Community College, to discuss bookstore events and the best ways to reach the entire campus community.
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