Rachel Marwedel
Website Manager
This article was run in the March 2025 printed issue of the The Bengal, and had to be abridged due to size constraints. Click here for the full, extended version.
“Would have robbed me about $200.”
“It is the worst thing I have ever seen.”
“Designed as a gotcha program.”
“My students consistently complain about feeling ‘ripped off.’”
“This is a cash grab.”
“I don’t know a single faculty member or student…who supports it.”
“It feels like nothing more than a scam, designed to squeeze just a little more money out of already struggling students.”
These raving reviews from ISU students put into perspective what the ISU Book Bundle is all about. Each of these comments were submitted as part of the survey the Bengal has run for the last month regarding the Book Bundle.
To give a short summary, the Book Bundle is a program that ISU began in Fall 2024 through Barnes & Noble. Students pay $24.75 per credit hour they are taking in exchange for receiving all of their textbooks at this flat fee. It’s been received with confusion and mixed reviews. Last month, the Bengal ran a short article encouraging students to take our survey. This month, after countless interviews, data collection, phone calls, emails, in-person visits, record requests and research, the Bengal would like to share the truth behind the ISU Book Bundle.
It all began sometime around the Fall of 2023. At least, that we know of. To find out more, I met with Chance Renoylds, former ASISU Vice President. “It was first brought up to me by Emma Watts, the president at the time,… She introduced the idea to get me on board with it. And …it sounded really good. They made it sound really good on paper.”
Emma Watts appears to have been the driving force behind the Book Bundle, but when I asked Renoylds, he couldn’t recall it ever being passed as a bill in ASISU. And it wasn’t passed as a bill – in fact, there is not a single mention of it in the passed bills, minutes of the ASISU meetings, or minutes for meetings of the presidential cabinet. There is more mention of the failed motion for ASISU to get a pet fish than this major campus-wide change. Unfortunately, Emma Watts could not be reached for comment on her role.
The only mention of the Book Bundle in official records I could find was in the Faculty Senate minutes for their meeting on August 28th, where it is mentioned Emma Watts discussed “Equitable access to textbooks, new cost structure.” I attempted to find out more through a public records request, but the information is related to B&N, “a private organization… not subject to public records laws.”
Where did Emma Watts get this idea from? Was she approached by a B&N representative? Were there higher administration involved? Wherever it came from, “by the time I was informed of it,” Reynolds told me, “the ball was already rolling.”
There appear to be no studies conducted testing if this program, which could cost students up to $500 dollars at a university in an area with over a 12% poverty rate, would be effective in any way. Not to mention, over 65% of students at ISU in 2023 qualified for some kind of need-based aid. But good news! There is “data” to prove that this program would be effective. Data that comes straight from the for-profit company itself.
“Students will save 30-50% on textbooks!” claimed the posters littered on campus. Where did that number come from? I asked our campus bookstore to provide some answers (as well as several other questions, including the opt-out rate for the program, what other universities had this program, and more). It took an initial email, an in-person visit, a month of waiting, and a final strongly worded email to get answers. Answers that vaguely said, “According to B&N College data across more than 190 campuses using the program, students saved an average 30-50% off.” (To see the full response given by the bookstore, the answers I received are uploaded to our website at isubengal.com).
With quite a bit more sleuthing, I found the actual name of the survey B&N conducted: the FDC Spring 2024 Student Success Survey. There is no information about how the survey was conducted, what criteria they were judging on, or anything other than seemingly positive numbers. We don’t know where these numbers come from, and there’s no way to validate their claims. I reached out to their media team, but they have not responded.
What’s also interesting is that other universities using this program have different rates per credit hour. At Emporia State, in Kansas, they pay $21.50 pch. At Hillsborough Community College, in Florida, they pay $22 pch. Why does ISU pay so much more at $24.75 pch?
There are some universities that had a book bundle-like program proposed to them, but they chose to decline. I spoke with Justin Samsa, current President of the Cleveland State University Student Government Association. However, unlike us, Samsa spearheaded a study that ultimately convinced their administration not to put the program into effect. In their survey, they found most students were overwhelmingly not in favor of a book bundle program.
In our own survey of 81 student responses, 82.7% answered that the Book Bundle has not saved them money. When asked to rate on a scale of 1-5 how they felt about the Book Bundle (1 being the Book Bundle helps no one, 5 being the Book Bundle is great), only one student answered 5. In contrast, 59 students answered either 1 or 2.
The survey also included a section where students could leave comments about their personal experiences. We received 64 responses, overwhelmingly negative. Many of them shared that they never received books, that buying them on their own was far easier, or discussed how the opt-out process seemed “purposefully complex” and “manipulative”.
However, we did receive a few positive reviews. As one student put it, “This only really works for some STEM or health science majors.” While it doesn’t appear to help the majority, there is a select minority who does benefit from the program.
We also ran a survey intended for faculty and staff. To our surprise, we had 113 responses, far more than the student responses we received. The results? 77.9% believed that the Book Bundle has a negative impact. 76% of respondents believe that the Book Bundle has helped less than 30% of students, with 30.1% of them thinking it hasn’t helped a single student at all. Their form also included a 1-5 prompt. A little under 80% rated it either 1 or 2.
We included a section where faculty and staff could share comments and experiences as well. We received 87 responses. Many faculty shared that they have had significant issues with the bookstore not communicating, issues with students receiving digital copies or access codes, and creating unnecessary workloads in the first two weeks. One respondent shared, “I am quite frankly embarrassed to be associated with this decision of the university: it is not in our students’ interest.”
The only bright side is that many faculty pointed out it’s a great way to learn one of the tough lessons of life: You’ll get scammed if you don’t do your research.
What was consistent across every interview, multiple comments, and each person I asked (excluding, of course, the bookstore themselves), is that everyone agreed they wished the program was automatic opt-out, not automatic opt-in. “It’s just one more thing students have to do, which further complicates the enrollment process,” one survey respondent shared.
What can be done about it?
Say something. Make your voice heard. Email the Dean of Students at ude.usinull@stnedutsfonaed, or email ude.usinull@usisa. Or take our survey – it’s still open. The outcomes of the surveys have been shared with the Faculty Senate and ASISU, and the Bengal will continue to fight for students’ interests until something changes.
In my interview with Justin Samsa, he shared some last words of encouragement as a representative of a fellow university who has shared similar problems: “By expressing how students feel, …what they have gone through, we can show people in administration, admissions, and management what students need, not only to come to our universities, but to stay at our universities. …We’re not trying to go after administration. We are trying to help administration.”
The sheer amount of information is too much to publish in this article, but a further breakdown of everything discussed can be viewed online at isubengal.com. This extended version also includes interviews that weren’t able to be shared, such as comments from current ASISU College of Technology Senator Ryan Class, data from Cleveland State’s student survey, additional student interviews, the bookstore’s comments, and much more.
