With the Fall 2022 semester in full swing, students and faculty remain perplexed and frustrated by the current bookstore model.
When the current contract came to an end in August 2021, the bookstore was brought to campus for the first time since 2007. It was to act as a hybrid model, allowing students to order textbooks online as they have in the past. However, due to continuous supply chain issues, it is resulting in more backorders than successful textbook purchases, especially within the English department.
“Unfortunately, my experience with the new bookstore has been unsatisfactory. I find the bookstore manager to be very responsive and stuck in the middle of a new system that we’re all struggling with,” said Dr. Mischelle Anthony, associate professor and chair of English.
Anthony said she frequently has to direct students toward other online purchasing options, like Chegg, Thriftbooks and Better World Books. She also misses the bookstore in its previous model, expressing the ease and familiarity of staff having decades of experience.
“I felt confident that I could walk down to the bookstore and see my books on the shelves and make sure I have the right edition for the desk copy beforehand, so that meant a lot,” said Anthony.
Textbook errors are also a frequent issue in using this model. Dr. Helen Davis, associate professor of English, reports that several times her submitted textbooks have been changed in error to other texts.
One of her biggest concerns with the new arrangement is that some students are required to order from the bookstore due to financial aid restrictions.
“If they add a course during the first or second week of classes, as commonly happens, and order their books the day that they enroll, they have to wait weeks for the books to arrive. This delay can cause them to get behind on coursework, which creates an unfair disadvantage,” said Davis.
To combat this, Davis emails students in advance with book information and encourages them to buy books online prior to the start of the semester. She also uploads digital copies of the text for the first week or two of the semester in her general education courses to aid students who may still be waiting on the textbook.
Mary Pashinski, junior dual major in secondary education and English, has also given up on the bookstore, stating that when one of her books went on backorder, she was told it would not arrive for another three weeks after the start of the semester.
“When the lease at the location of the previous bookstore was coming to an end, the university put together a committee to help the process along in planning to make sure the transition was easy for students and staff. This committee came to the Student Government, which I was a part of at the time, with their ideas. I’m not sure if even one of us agreed with the location of the bookstore or the idea that no books would be kept on hand,” said Pashinski.
She also experienced a similar issue as Davis, stating that for one of her courses, the selected text through the bookstore was wrong which led to multiple students ordering and receiving the wrong book. In another class where a textbook was required, the textbook was never listed which resulted in everyone showing up without it.
Joseph Stager, store manager, strongly urges faculty to submit course material requests as soon as ordering for the upcoming term opens and for students to order their course material as soon as possible prior to those terms. That way, they can limit so many orders happening at once at the beginning of the semester and students will then have time to plan accordingly should a text not arrive.
“We continue to elicit feedback and identify problems so that improvements can be made as we move forward. This system will work. And I’m certain that the bookstore and Wilkes has the best intentions for its students, faculty and staff,” said Stager.