The Bison Book Bundle, in partnership with the bookstore powered by Barnes & Noble, will ensure that students enrolled in 12 credit classes will automatically have all their required course materials or books before the first day of classes.
Starting in the Fall 2024 semester, students will get access to this service for a semesterly fee of $375, according to Provost Michael Soto. Each semester, the books will automatically be ordered after a student is registered for their classes. The books are to be released to students on a rental basis and can be purchased at the end of each semester for an undetermined additional fee.
Soto said that through the program it will reduce costs for student books by 39-40% and that the university will not be gaining any profit from it.
“The Bison Book Bundle includes electronic books,” Soto said. “If it is a title we can order through Barnes and Noble, it can be added through the bundle.”
Marlin Collingwood, vice president for enrollment, management and marketing, has been working on this project with other colleagues since July.
“The important thing to note is that students can opt out of this,” Collingwood said. “Everybody [is] opted in, but then you’re going to have an opportunity to say, ‘nope, I don’t want to be a part of this.’”
Ryann Coleman, a junior dance major, said that she would be opting out of the bundle. As a dance major, she said that previously her professors have included all of their needed material online. She has never needed to purchase a textbook before.
Yet, she said that the program could still be advantageous to other students who did need to purchase books.
“If students had their textbooks readily available to them, it would probably help out a ton,” Coleman said.
Students can find the option to opt-out both in their email and on Point Park’s Bison Book Bundle webpage.
The program was suggested to the school by Barnes and Noble, the bookstore’s partner, but according to Soto, it is not because the store does not believe their competition is with Amazon.
“The competition is simply students not purchasing their books and class materials recommended to them by Barnes and Noble,” Soto said.
According to Collingwood, a program like this is the current trend in higher education. With the Book Bundle, Collingwood said he thinks there will be less stress from students having to find books on their own or not knowing how much their books are going to cost
“I can’t tell them; I literally can’t,” Collingwood said. “I can’t say, ‘Well, you may not have any books because you’re in this school’ or, ‘It’s going to cost you this because you’re studying engineering,’ because I don’t know, because I don’t know yet what books have been assigned.”
Nick Hunn, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, usually purchases anywhere from one to three textbooks a semester. He said that it usually costs him $200 for books, or less than $300 a semester.
“A lot of my stuff I can find for free very easily,” Hunn said.
Outside of buying textbooks, the library reserves course material for students to use for free under the condition that the book is kept inside the library.
Hunn has never had to use this resource because if he needs a textbook he would prefer to buy it or use the free online version a classmate or professor shared with him.
Yet, with the Bison Book Bundle, Collingwood said he hopes that it will take away some confusion for parents and families about the cost of textbooks before they enroll. The bundle allows the school to tell current and incoming students that if they come to Point Park, they’re “never going to pay more than $750 in a year for books.”
The earliest students will be able to pick up their books is in the first week before classes begin. More information about where an opted-in student can find their books can be found in their Outlook email.
A full information campaign is being launched to alert students about their options to pick up books or opt out because of this, Collingwood said he doesn’t think that students not picking up their books is going to create an issue.
Griffin Engelhardt, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, has never had to purchase any of his textbooks because he uses the older editions from when his siblings went through college. He said that he plans to opt out of the program.
“It’s a lot cheaper to buy a used version somewhere else or a PDF version,” Englehardt said. “I don’t think [the program] is ideal for me.”
Collingwood said that they anticipate the new program to update the look of the bookstore.
“It’ll be much more of a merchandise store,” Collingwood said. “Much more of a gear store, if you will.”
Engelhardt said he thinks that the last time he purchased Point Park merchandise was before orientation. He said that he hasn’t bought anything “school spirit-wise” recently because he’s been mostly studying at home.
For more information, students can start by calling the bookstore at 412-392-3448 or email the manager at [email protected] and students can find the Bison Bundle information page at www.pointpark.edu/academics/academicresources/bison-bundle. The bookstore is open Monday through Wednesday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
