Discusses how independent bookstores are finding that to be competitive, they have to offer their services online. (EV)

Dozens of colleges have hired leasing companies to run their bookstores in recent years in the hope of stemming losses, increasing store profits, improving service, and reducing administrative burdens. Leasing is expected to continue with universities facing new legislative restrictions on their commercial activities. (MLW)

Increasingly, college bookstores are departing from the traditional model and becoming high-technology retailing environments, providing books, merchandise, food services, and entertainment in one location. Critics say they lack charm and are attempting to do too much; supporters feel they are better positioned for sales in a competitive market.…

A ruling in a dispute over whether the State University of New York System was justified in barring from its Cortland campus a group selling kitchen products is discussed. The case involved the legality of a regulation that bars most commercial activity from SUNY campuses. (MLW)

Describes how some small-college bookstores are relocating off-campus in an effort to increase profits and help revive flagging downtown business districts. Such a move can help fight competition in the $10.1-billion college bookstore industry, especially as more chains take over the operation of college bookstores and online booksellers carve out…

Companies in the term-paper-research business insist that they are legitimate enterprises. Research Assistance of Los Angeles insists that "the best way to learn research techniques is through studying research papers." Author's Research Services adds a disclaimer that all materials are sold for research assistance, not as finished…

An independent bookseller is suing two branches of the State University of New York to obtain copies of professors' required reading lists, claiming a right to them under state public records law. The institutions say any such lists are property of legally separate college bookstores, managed by a large publisher. (MSE)

The small-business community, which has long complained that colleges have an unfair advantage in the marketplace because of their tax-exempt status, has become increasingly vocal in its demands for new taxes and restrictions on the services and products that colleges and other non-profit organizations can offer. (MLW)

Interviews with computer-company officials and a survey show that: despite higher education discounts, computer companies make money; colleges offer computer companies intellectual capital; students take hardware and software preferences with them into jobs; higher education influences computers built and sold; and higher education is a…

Small-business leaders have persuaded many lawmakers that nonprofit organizations--particularly colleges and universities--have used their tax-exempt status and government support to gain an unfair advantage over privately owned businesses. Computer-store owners, private chemical-laboratory owners, and travel agents say colleges should not receive…

Business schools across the country are specializing in electronic commerce, in which teams of students create online businesses available on the Internet only to participating institutions. The courses offer students an opportunity to see how an online retailing business is conducted, including creating and maintaining Web sites, advertising…

"Chronicle of Higher Education" presents an abundant source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators. This January 28, 2005 issue of "Chronicle for Higher Education" includes the following articles: (1) "Wasting Money: A Failed Fund-Raising Trip Makes a Development Officer…