‘Cardinal Pride’ tees replace Movie Nest

BY SARA EISENHAUER
News Editor

The Saint Mary’s University Business Department liquidated the Movie Nest, an on-campus video rental service, due to declining sales over the past few years and plans to replace it with a new campus store, said Jana Schrenkler, assistant professor of business.

“Video rental is a dying industry, at least it is on campus,” said Schrenkler, who teaches the entrepreneurship class that previously operated the Movie Nest.

The Movie Nest first opened in the fall of 2002 as a way to “give students a real business to run,” Schrenkler said. The department received a Coleman grant that helped start the Movie Nest along with the entrepreneurship major. This semester’s entrepreneurship class was challenged to resolve the problem of the failing Movie Nest. Ten students were assigned to create a proposal for a new business, and ten others had to come up with a product to sell. Schrenkler said the department believes the project will “beef up the real, practical experience” students receive to help develop job-related skills.

“It’s a chance to take some theories and ideas we learn in class and experience them on a smaller level,” said Jared Jacobs, a senior in the entrepreneurship class.One group applied classroom knowledge to develop a larger store that will allow SMU community members to sell a variety of products such as art, crafts, clothing and other student-related products, Schrenkler said. The business will also support non-profit organizations such as the Winona Area Humane Society. The students will present the proposal to the department and then to the university beginning Oct. 30.

“I would love for (the store) to be a hub for all things student-related,” Schrenkler said.

The other group of students developed the new SMU “Pride” t-shirt, which Schrenkler hopes will be sold in the future store. The students held a design contest for a shirt that would display “Cardinal Pride,” a theme of SMU athletics. Schrenkler said she hopes the contest will continue each fall.

The shirts were sold from this week for $10 with profits going toward purchasing a set of large animal steps and office supplies for the Winona Area Humane Society.