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#lpcexpress

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Rain H.

Our A&E editor saw Michelle Obama in #Livermore on Tuesday — who'da thunk?
lpcexpressnews.com/how-michell
#press #lpcexpress #news #michelleobama #celebrities #bayarea #trivalley #sfba #laspositas #costco #california #obama

lpcexpressnews.comHow my disaster of a day was saved by Michelle Obama — at Costco, no lessMy Tuesday started with a car accident. In my precious blue 2013 Mazda. Oddly enough, that was far from the most interesting thing that happened to me on Sept. 17. Who knew this unfortunate event would lead to an encounter with the former First Lady of the United States — at Costco? Yes. I was there when Michelle Obama made a random and surprising appearance. On a Tuesday, in Livermore. The crash happened on the way to class. It wasn't a terrible accident. Thankfully, all parties walked away unharmed. Still, I was shaken up, as one could imagine. Tears were shed.  Things still, ended up OK. More than OK. It proved to be a blessed day. I made it to school. Attended class. Even got through a basketball practice. My teammates and I were leaving the gym when we decided to go get food. After the accident though, I didn’t want to get in my car. My friend offered to drive me. Starving and broke, with only a Costco Card to save us, we did what broke Las Positas students do — took advantage of the hot dogs and pizza at Costco. There's a reason LPC is playfully dubbed "the college behind Costco." I’d never been so lucky to be left with a last-ditch lunch option. A mile from our campus, Michelle Obama was just hanging out at our local Costco, promoting a drink from her new brand, PLEZi Nutrition. Obama, who famously and consistently encouraged a healthy diet as First Lady, is the co-founder of the food and drink health company. On what seemed to be a mini-marketing tour, she clearly decided to come to the Costco down the street from my school to see me. She knew my day needed a boost and she showed up just to brighten my day with her trademark smile. Let a girl fantasize, would ya? I had a hard day. Before we got our food, we walked around the warehouse. You know, just hanging out at Costco like broke college students tend to do. Suddenly, out of nowhere, my friend Tamia Herring, also a guard for the Hawks, yelled, “Holy s***! Is that Michelle Obama?!?” We nearly broke our necks in shock.  My friend was immediately shushed. Workers were trying their best to keep it lowkey. Still, everyone had their phones out, attempting to get their own little flick of Obama, no matter how many times her bodyguards said, “No photos.”  It was surreal. A true Costco card stroke of luck. I've never been so close to someone so famous. I'd always been a fan of our First Lady because of how she inspired little girls like me to become something no matter how we're labeled or whatever our skin color. I called my friend, Jaylen Dunbar. He's a political science major who studies law. I knew he'd appreciate my close encounter with majesty. Then I called my aunt Tita who is a huge fan of Michelle Obama and always shops at the same Costco. I had to rub it in a little. It was the best turnaround after an unfortunate start to the day. It went from having a story to tell my parents and the car insurance company to having a story to tell my children. And their children. About the time me and Michelle Obama hung out at the Costco in Livermore. Top Illustration: Michelle Obama, co-founder of Plezi Nutrition, showcasing her drink to Costco members in Livermore on Sept. 17, 2024. (Photo by Sydney Breckenridge) Sydney Breckenridge is the Arts & Entertainment editor for The Express. Follow her on X, formally Twitter, @SydBreckenridge.
Public
Rain H.

The Las Positas College campus bookstore is closing, as are other college bookstores across the state. Fitts fetches facts on why...
lpcexpressnews.com/lpcs-textbo
#press #news #college #lpcexpress #bookstore #books #california #sfba #laspositas

lpcexpressnews.comLPC’s textbook supplier closing its bookstore on campus for good due to declining revenueLas Positas College is soon to lose several million printed words. On September 30, the physical bookstore on campus will close indefinitely. The virtual store, found in the “Students” section of the college website, will replace its tangible counterpart. Five months ago, Follett – the company responsible for providing and running the school’s bookstore – emailed administrators on the subject of dismal returns. “We, in the Spring,” LPC President Dyrell Foster said, “received a notice from Follett who indicated that because of a lack of revenue, they weren’t able to maintain a store on campus.” Blame for the sales deficit rests largely on two acquitted conditions: COVID-19’s lingering reduction of bookstore foot traffic, and the resourcefulness of students who buy cheaper course materials elsewhere. In light of their departure from campus, the bookstore provider offered the school inclusion in its Follett Access Program. It’d mean students, in the process of paying for class, would pay an extra fee for textbooks — money that would reduce the overall book cost for everyone. Las Positas declined. “We didn't find that to be feasible for us, asking every student to pay a textbook fee to be able to have access to textbooks,” Foster said. “The second option was to move forward with the virtual campus store, which is what we ultimately decided to do.” The plan for revenue supplementation — aside from tapping into unrestricted funds from the LPC Foundation — is presently lacking in specifics. Through commissions, the bookstore was financially supporting various on-campus programs. Athletics, theater and performing arts, and the forensics programs were three of the beneficiaries. How, exactly, Follett could fund programs while actively losing money is unclear. “The bookstore had been providing support to a number of different programs here on campus,” Foster said. “We’ve identified that there are some needs and that we’ll have a loss of revenue to a lot of those programs.” President Foster remains unshakably optimistic. “We’re exploring other options to be able to fund the programs that we have in place,” he said. “So, that is a concern, but I think it's also an opportunity for us to really lean into our entrepreneurial talents here as an institution to find ways to generate some revenue due to that loss.” Foster expects, for students and staff, a relatively seamless transition from physical to digital bookstore. LPC looked to its sister school for an unofficial road-map on ensuring that be the case. For Chabot’s Vice President of Administrative Services, Dale Wagoner, the changeover’s in hindsight. He remembers it with less enthusiasm. “I wouldn't call (the transition) smooth. There were fits and starts. I’ll tell you that the first six months weren't real easy,” Wagoner said. “Now that we’ve been at it for a little over a year, it’s worked out pretty well. I think people have adjusted and adapted.” One of the issues arising from the departure of on-campus bookstores concerns double-edged participation. When a professor suggests their students buy books on Amazon, or like sources, students participating in programs that provide low or zero-cost textbooks can’t receive the benefits. In other words, if professors negate their vendor — Follett, in the case of LPC — with the intention of providing a cheaper purchasing option, they sacrifice the ability for respective students to potentially receive free textbooks from the vendor. “Faculty can do what they wish to do, but if they don't wish to participate, it does hurt students,” said Wagoner, “and it will potentially affect our relationship (with Barnes & Noble).” The yet unresolvable issue is a matter of merch. “Our biggest thing that hasn’t been resolved is the swag piece,” Wagoner said. “You wanna buy a LPC sweatshirt? You go to the bookstore and buy it. What do you do when you don't have a bookstore to buy a LPC sweatshirt?” Without a general merch vendor to collaborate with the bookstore’s website, you apparently do nothing. More pressingly, “Chabot realized that some students may not have an address to ship to,” President Foster said. “They ended up identifying a location on their campus that could receive the books and the students could just pick them up on campus. So for us, we would do the same. It would probably be our welcome center on campus. That’s one example of what we learned from Chabot.” Across the state, brick-and-mortar bookstores are abandoning their posts. LPC and Chabot are two of countless victims. At Las Positas College, books going forward are purchasable at the virtual bookstore and available for pickup — for those who might be sans an address — at the Welcome and Basic Needs centers. Olivia Fitts is the News Editor and Opinions Editor for The Express. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @OLIVIAFITTS2.
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