Campus Policy Hinders Student's Efforts to Promote Online Bookstore - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, Feb 3, 2000

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- A student at the University of Pittsburgh's Johnstown campus says school officials reversed a decision to allow her to distribute brochures about a discount online bookstore, saying it would hurt sales at the campus shop.

Lee Ann Diffendal, a freshman communications major, says her $9-per-hour job with varsitybooks.com is in jeopardy as a result, and so are the jobs of three other students she recruited to distribute brochures about the online seller.

"They have told me I cannot solicit varsitybooks.com on any part of the campus," Diffendal says. "I can still work off campus, but they've made it so much harder, nearly impossible."

University spokeswoman Helen Golubic said only private business that does not conflict with the university's own operation can be represented on campus. Diffendal says she hopes to change that policy, but her chances appear slim.

Diffendal says she signed on with the company after a friend who distributes the online seller's brochures at Duquesne University recommended it. She says her job is to distribute brochures about the company and its wares. But if asked, she will help students order books online.

Jodi Gershoni, communications director with varsitybooks.com, says the company advertises that it sells college textbooks at discounts of up to 40 percent off of distributors' prices.

"We are marketing on hundreds of campuses and sometimes a campus bookstore feels threatened and will try to stop the student," Gershoni told the Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown. "There's a team working in our office to make sure her legal rights are not being harmed, that she is allowed to do her job for the company."

Diffendal says she got a permit from the university to distribute brochures from a table in the lobby of the student union. University officials asked her if she would be selling anything, and she replied that she would only pass out literature.

On the day she set up shop, she found the manager of the campus bookstore, Tom Dupnock, reading one of the brochures at his desk. She says he told her he would take the issue to the highest authority to prevent her from promoting the online seller on campus.