By BRENLEY LEWIS and CLAYTON CARTER
brenley@newsroom.byu.edu
Choosing a new director for the fifth largest collegiate bookstore in the nation was not a small task, said David Hunt, Assistant Vice-President of Student Life.
After a nationwide search, Roger Reynolds of Hemet, CA took the place of Roger Utley as the top administrator of the bookstore. Utley retired from the position at age 72.
This move represents the first change of bookstore directors since 1968, Reynolds said.
Reynolds was chosen for the position because of his 'overall job experience in the college bookstore business and his background in technology,' Hunt said.
'The BYU Bookstore needs to weave its way into the fabric of the university,' Reynolds said. 'I always believed that someday I would have the opportunity to manage the BYU bookstore. I am thrilled to be here.'
Reynolds graduated from BYU in 1973 with a degree in elementary education, and is a former student employee of the bookstore text department.
'I feel at home here at BYU,' he said. 'I am sincere when I say that BYU has a higher class and quality of students than anywhere I've ever worked before.'
Former director's secretary Darlene Gray said of Reynolds, 'He is very positive, very person-oriented, and he has a lot of vision for the bookstore.'
Reynolds said his plans for the bookstore include improving the price, quality and selection of products sold at the bookstore, and rapidly developing the bookstore's online commerce.
'We intend to stay step for step with university changes and advances in technology,' he said.
Reynolds said he also hopes to shorten the time it takes students to purchase and sell back textbooks.
'At Cornell University, we had four minute lines at text times. Our goal is to expedite lines,' he said.
Reynolds said in the best interests of the students, he intends to immediately develop a strong relationship with the faculty.
'Students get burned when professors do not get their book lists in before book buyback,' he said. 'Faculty and the bookstore need to work together.'
As for the frequent changing of text editions, Reynolds said this is mostly publisher-driven in an effort to keep the used book market down.
'Faculty complain about that too,' he said.
Reynolds said he wants to bring a harmony of effort to the bookstore by unifying its departments and programs.
Reynolds has worked in college bookstores across the country for the last 17 years, including the University of Utah, Stanford University and Cornell University.
Much of his work has been in writing software and implementing new technologies into bookstore operations to make them run more efficiently.