MELISSA HALTERMAN/Arizona Summer Wildcat The new UofA bookstore provides one stop shopping for everything from school supplies to cosmetics. Katie Spencer, 37, and her son Kyle, 15, visit the bookstore during a campus tour for prospective students.

The UA bookstore has just completed its first academic year, and both students and administrators alike are hailing it as a success.

When the initial planning for the current structure began more than four years ago, bookstore workers and administrators knew that customer reaction during the first year would be one of the most important barometers to gauge the structure.

Frank Farias, director of the UA bookstore, said he was more than happy with the progress of the bookstore's inaugural year.

"Given all the financial expenses from this year, we came out really well," he said. "We have a lot to be proud of right now."

Unveiled last fall, the 63,000-square-foot building is nearly double its previous size. Although Farias was worried about his predictions from a year ago, he was impressed with the volume of customers that have entered the store.

"It would be reasonable to say that we were consistent with what we had projected to do and the sales were reflective of the response that customers had of the store, both from students that own the store and from visitors that come in," he said.

This first year completes fourteen years of work for Farias, who first started planning for a new bookstore design the day he arrived at the UA. Although previous attempts to redesign the bookstore were problematic due to more communication between various student union entities, Farias said he did not let his idea die.

Now the U of A Bookstore, while only comprising 16 percent of the Student Union Structure, supports half of all Student Union operations. The bookstore also provided a $350,000 loan to the union to help meet costs.

"The way that it was designed was to create synergy between us," Farias said of the partnership. "Visitors of the bookstore will typically visit the Student Union and people that visit the Student Union will eventually come in here."

The rest of the UA community seems to have taken a shine to his completed vision ¾ not only the massive structure, but also the merchandise within, none of which, Farias added, has been priced differently to pay for the new building.

"I really dig the products there," said education senior Aron Schmidt. "There's stuff that you can actually use like the Office Depot."

The structure and the product line is only part of the mission of the U of A Bookstore, Farias said. Now the centerpiece of the UA Memorial Student Union, bookstore administrators have incorporated the UA community whenever possible. With working partnerships with the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, UA Press, KUAT, and the faculty fellow program, among others, Farias said the abilities of the bookstore extend beyond merely providing products for money.

Much of the bookstore's profits are directed to club funding, which provides students the opportunity to grow outside of the classroom, Farias said. He added that the bookstore promotes UA faculty publications, book signings by authors, and the Wildcat Advocacy for the Literacy of Kids (WALK) program. These programs are supported with little or no profit going to the bookstore.

"Our store is owned by the university, by the community and by the members of the campus," Farias said. "The bookstore is not only providing financial support to the clubs and faculty, but we're also making it possible for the students and faculty to enjoy the student union facilities which are not necessarily labeled as U of A Bookstore property."

This philosophy directs the majority of decisions made by Farias and his staff. Internal vendors such as Office Depot were brought in to provide a unique service to students and faculty.