Bookstore Move Part of Mississippi College Master Plan

A move for the Mississippi College bookstore to a site on Jefferson Street is expected in 2012, and that’s one of the major pieces of the university’s master plan.

Look for the bookstore, now in the basement of Alumni Hall, to be housed on a quarter-acre site now occupied by MC’s Department of Interior Design.

Steve Stanford, vice president for administration and government relations, says he expects the new bookstore will be fully operational prior to the Fall 2012. A small café will connect to the new bookstore that should maintain about the same square footage as the present facility, he said.

MC leaders plan to utilize the present bookstore space as a popular spot for students to watch TV, just hang out and relax during breaks between classes and their studies on the Clinton campus.

The Mississippi College bookstore is operated by the Illinois-based Follett company and that won’t change. Follett oversees about 840 college bookstores around the USA and Canada, including those at Florida State University in Tallahassee and James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. Other accounts include stores on other Mississippi campuses.

Before the new MC bookstore is constructed, the university will need to select an architect to work with Follett, Stanford said.

The move for the bookstore means the Interior Design headquarters will go somewhere else on the Clinton campus. Farr Hall that now houses ROTC and the Dyslexia Center could be a possibility, he said.

Mississippi College’s master plan is really a work in progress that can change as time marches on.

“We are moving forward to address our needs and priorities,” Stanford said. “We will continue to assess and prioritize as the institution grows.”

The MC master plan will address future uses of the university’s 17.5 acre site now known as the East Campus. The site consists of the former Clinton Junior High property that MC purchased in September 2010.

The master plan will also evaluate what the future will bring for the Hederman science building. “We will do a survey of the space to see what we need to do,” Stanford said.

JBHM Architects, the firm assigned to the science building, will meet with Clinton officials to initiate conversations about the structure.