In 1914, the Students Book Corporation was founded on the WSU campus with the goal of providing students with materials to help them learn.

This year, The Bookie celebrates its centennial with the same goal of giving students ownership of the store.

“We just want people to understand that it’s really their store,” Store Manager Leslie Martin said.

Martin said The Bookie Centennial is significant because it represents how the Bookie has been serving students for 100 years, and will continue to serve students for another 100 years.

“When we do anything in the store, we’re always thinking of the students,” Martin said. “What is it going to do to benefit the students, how is it going to help the students.”

Martin noted that there is often a lot of confusion surrounding the actual ownership of the store, as many students believe it falls under Barnes & Noble.

Student Book Corporation Chair and graduate student Richie Liu agreed that there are often misconceptions among students as to who truly owns the bookstore.

“I think a lot of people are under the impression that it’s under ownership of the university,” Liu said.

Liu said The Bookie acts independently from the university, and is therefore able to make every decision based on the interests of the students.

Martin explained that the introduction of Barnes and Noble to The Bookie in 2004 did not change ownership of the Student Book Corporation, but instead added another layer of management.

“We are a third party that manages for the board of directors of the student book corporation, and that’s the big one right there, that all we do is manage for them,” Martin said.

With the introduction of a large corporation to manage the bookstore, many hardships are lifted from the bookstore, and in turn, the Board of Directors who run the store.

Martin said prior to the adoption of Barnes & Noble management, every process associated with a business was handled internally, such as taxes, employee benefits, and human relations.

Being managed by a large corporation allows greater benefits for employees, as well as delegation to skilled employees for other business processes while allowing the board members to focus on just running the bookstore, Martin said.

“We would not be in the place we are right now if we were trying to run it independently,” Martin said.

Although Barnes & Noble has stepped in as a third-party manager, Martin said the goals of The Bookie remain the same.

“I’ve been there almost 15 years, and prior to being managed by Barnes & Noble, it was still run pretty much the same it is now,” Martin said.

One of the largest ways The Bookie continues to serve students is through the annual dividend check written out to ASWSU each year.

Each year, all profits from The Bookie are given to ASWSU in the form of a dividend, which ASWSU can spend at their own discretion to benefit students.

Martin said The Bookie gives everything they can, with the exclusion of expenses related to running the store.

“Barnes & Noble pays the Student Book Corporation to manage their store for them. The corporation is non-profit, so all their proceeds go back to the students,” Martin said. “That’s why the check is given to ASWSU.”

ASWSU President Taylor Hennessey said the dividend is usually in the range of $60,000-70,000, and Martin said the dividend given to ASWSU in 2012 was $85,000.

Hennessey said this money is spent throughout the duration of the school year in a variety of projects. If not all of the fund is used in one year, it rolls over to the next year, he said.

“The Bookie dividend is ASWSU’s largest account of discretionary money,” Hennessey said.

Hennessey said the dividend from The Bookie is not considered state dollars, meaning ASWSU has full control over how to spend it.

The dividend has helped fund the lights on the crosswalks throughout campus, a new Green Bike station on Colorado Street, the furnishing of the new Veteran’s Center, and a portion of funding for Spring Fest each year, Hennessey said.

This redistribution of profits from the student book store to the student government is what makes the store truly owned by the students, Martin said.

Every decision the store makes is also made by the Student Book Corporation Board of Directors, which holds more voting students than administrators or faculty members, Liu said.

“Everything we do, and the decisions we make, are in interests of the students,” Liu said.