St. Mary’s College of Maryland is finalizing a contract to hand over operation of its Campus Bookstore and the Daily Grind café to Barnes & Noble College, with the transition beginning during Spring Break in March 2027, President Rhonda Phillips confirmed in an update to the campus community.
The move ends a model in which the Campus Store describes itself as “primarily a student-run organization,” staffed substantially by students and returning all proceeds directly back to the college — a structure that will change once Barnes & Noble takes over daily operations. The Daily Grind has long been one of the more distinctive pieces of that setup: student-staffed, student-managed, and known on campus for hosting open mic nights and serving as an informal gathering spot rather than functioning as a typical corporate café.
Phillips said the Board of Trustees’ recommendation followed a formal Request for Proposal process, review by a cross-functional team, and consideration by multiple board committees before reaching the full board. The deciding factor, she said, was money: “our[s] has experienced significant operating losses for several years,” and as an auxiliary enterprise, the bookstore is expected to be financially self-supporting rather than draw on other institutional resources meant to support the college’s broader mission. “As stewards of the College, we have a responsibility to carefully evaluate how resources are used and to make decisions that position the institution for long-term success,” Phillips wrote, while acknowledging “financial sustainability alone cannot be the only consideration” and that “not everyone agrees with this decision.”
SMCM’s move follows a well-established national pattern rather than a novel one. Barnes & Noble Education’s own securities filings estimate that only about 27% of U.S. college and university bookstores remain institutionally operated, with the company explicitly stating it expects the outsourcing trend to continue; the company returned to profitability in its most recent fiscal year, reporting $16.9 million in net income compared with a $65.8 million loss the year before, driven partly by growth in new campus contracts. Other schools that have gone through similar transitions offer a mixed record: East Carolina University outsourced to Barnes & Noble College in 2021 citing pandemic-driven revenue losses, retaining existing bookstore employees in the process, while the University of North Carolina negotiated a contract explicitly requiring the retention of student workers and creation of a student-faculty-staff advisory board to weigh in on store programs and merchandise after facing community pushback. SMCM’s own update does not yet detail whether similar student-employment or advisory protections are part of its contract.
College leadership and Barnes & Noble representatives will hold virtual and on-campus planning meetings with students, faculty, staff, and other stakeholders throughout the fall semester, with updates posted to the college’s Campus Bookstore Transition webpage as details are finalized.
