An audit released by UT’s internal audit group in August 1998 disclosed that in UT’s 10-year relationship with Follett Campus Resources—a national company that operated over half of the book buyback programs in the US—the company had systematically underpaid students by $2 a book and had rounded down the amount that Follett owed the student to the nearest dollar.
Follett was hired by UT in 1989 to conduct book buybacks but did not operate on a formal contract, and individual sales records were maintained neither by Follett nor by the university. Follett maintained that the short-changing was the fault of rogue employees, all of whom had been fired. Follett agreed to compensate UT a total of $380,000, which included restitution for damages done to the UT Book and Supply Store’s (renamed VolShop in 2013) reputation.
Vice Chancellor for Administration and Student Affairs Philip Scheurer announced that the Student Government Association would recommend a project, or projects, upon which the recovered funds would be spent, and Chancellor Bill Snyder appointed the SGA Executive Board as the student committee responsible for collecting student ideas about how the money should be spent and for making recommendations to the UT administration. Missouri Book Services replaced Follett as the buyback operator and worked under a written contract with UT.