Open for Business! New CIU Campus Store offers more than Textbooks

Open for Business! New CIU Campus Store offers more than Textbooks

CIU senior Drew Clemmons buys CIU gear from CIU Campus Store Manager Hailey Planck
Drew Clemmons, a CIU senior enjoys a book in the CIU Campus Store.

CIU senior Drew Clemmons relaxes with a book in the new CIU Campus Store.

By Bob Holmes

There is probably no place on campus with more blue and gold than the new CIU Campus Store. The CIU school colors are on display in everything from CIU Rams gear to school supplies to gifts.

Located in the Rossi Student Center just a few steps away from the Grace Coffee Company bar, the CIU Campus Store is operated by Tree of Life Bookstores headquartered in Marion, Indiana. The manager is Hailey Planck who offers a ready smile, an array of snacks, and a comfy chair where students can take a break between classes.

Those cozy chairs are located near a display of classic Christian literature from authors such as C.S. Lewis to contemporary writers such as CIU alumnus Philip Yancey.

“We’ll have Christian best-sellers, a small fiction section, and we’ll have Bibles and devotionals,” Planck pointed out during a walk around the spacious store.   

And of course, there are the textbooks. But they are not on shelves of the store.

“The textbooks to the undergrad students are free – they get free rentals,” Planck explains. “We get the enrollment, we fill their books, and they are actually delivered to their dorm room.”  

A service window in the store opens to a supply room where off-campus undergraduate students as well as graduate and seminary students will pick up their textbooks.

CIU Campus Store hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The CIU Campus Store is just one of many renovation projects taking place on campus this summer. As CIU experiences growth in enrollment it has announced $25 million in expansion plans for the campus, including construction of the $20 million William H. Jones Global Business and IT Center. CIU is accredited by SACS-COC.