It has been only a few months since Indiana University outsourced a portion of its motor pool and the entirety of its bookstore operation. In just a short time, serious problems have cropped up all across the Bloomington campus due to this outsourcing, problems IU was warned about.

The biggest problem is that bursar billing of textbooks is no more. This was a vitally important benefit for low-income students. A third of IU-Bloomington students and a higher percentage on other campuses were eligible for it. Barnes and Noble, which took over the bookstore operation on July 1, was not prepared to do bursar billing. As a result, many students were surprised to find they had to choose between paying for books and paying for the necessities of life.

Another problem: departments all across campus have discovered they no longer have the internal billing options for ordering textbooks they used to have. As a result, more time and energy are being devoted to ordering, which has left less time for departments to pursue more important parts of their academic mission. This extra burden placed on the departments is a prime example of the hidden costs that come with outsourcing of services.