Towson UStore outsources management, employees not guaranteed jobs
By Hailey Ensor, Staff Writer
Towson University’s UStore is being outsourced to the retail management company Follett Higher Education, which will fully take over operations March 13, but not all employees will be retained in the transfer.
Towson chose to outsource its university store to Follett, which is a higher education retail company, after years of declining UStore revenue. The UStore’s expenditure outpaced revenue from 2020 to 2024, with it losing over $1.4 million in 2024.
Interim CFO Michael Palmer said that by outsourcing management, the potential economic loss is lessened because the store is centralized and not a stand-alone operation. Follett operates university stores at over a thousand other campuses.
“So there’s an economy of scale there,” Palmer said.
A UStore employee, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not allowed to speak publicly, said that they were upset about the transition because of how it’s handling staffing changes.
“I know that the full-time staff are kind of out of luck, in terms of, they’re not guaranteed a job,” UStore employee A said. “A few people were moved to a different department.”
According to Follett’s contract, it is supposed to negotiate with Towson to “allow some or all” UStore employees to remain Towson employees, despite being under new management.
However, Follett’s contract says it won’t be extending job offers to people in fields like IT, accounting and merchandising because it has its own departments for those roles. Follett provided two “financial options” for store associates that wouldn’t receive full-employment offers due to the transition, both of which are redacted in the copy The Towerlight obtained.
Some full time staff are staying with Follett, some have gone into retirement, and some are searching for new jobs.
“[Follett] said that they would give priority to the UStore staff that exists for the staffing needs inside of the store,” Palmer said.
Student employees were sent an email with a link to apply to work under Follett and other on-campus jobs, according to UStore Employee B who asked to remain anonymous because they were not allowed to speak publicly.
“A lot of the student employees are not happy about it, and I know that a lot of the managers are like…they don’t care anymore,” UStore employee A said.
There will be a few changes to the UStore that impacts customers as the transition comes to fruition. Tiger Rewards and UStore gift cards will no longer be accepted after Follett takes over on March 13.
“Follett is exploring how they can support a program similar to the textbook advance program moving forward,” Towson spokesperson Jamie Abell said. “Students should refer to TU’s website and look for TU Today announcements regarding updates.”