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OCC and Barnes and Noble To Reduce Textbook Costs OCC To Reduce Textbook Costs

OCC and Barnes and Noble to reduce textbook costs to help students.

By Taylor Epps

“So the question is if you can’t get the textbooks and material do you really have access? And our answer is no.”

Just last year fewer than half of OCC’s students were able to afford textbooks and online access codes. OCC is the first public institution to partner with Barnes and Noble College to reduce the cost of textbooks. For textbooks the cost will be cut by half. Textbooks used to be over six-hundred-dollars per semester but with the program they will now be under three-hundred-and-fifty. It will also shave one-hundred-dollars off the cost of dell chromebooks. Access to these items is essential in a student’s success.

“You need to have them. You need to have them especially with the access codes you can’t not do your homework without an access code for any type of math course um that’s where you have all your quizzes, um all of your homework’s which is the majority of your grade.”

Not only is the Box of Books program critical to student achievement but also to student retention. This is especially important during a time when enrollment at community colleges is on the decline.

“When a student enrolls but can’t complete because they don’t have the materials they become a dropout, and that’s an enrollment decline that is unconscionable, enrollment decline based on the amount of people you have well you get that, but one where you lose a student because they can’t afford the books that’s an unconscionable enrollment decline and I think it will help.”

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — The college experience has been known to hurt the pockets of students, Onondaga Community College wants to change this. In an effort to help students save some money, OCC is partnering up with Barnes and Noble to decrease the cost of textbooks by half with a program called Box of Books.

“You need to have them. You need to have them especially with the access codes you can’t not do your homework without an access code for any type of math course that’s where you have all your quizzes, all of your homework’s which is the majority of your grade,” said Student Trustee Allison Guzman-Martinez.

Costs have been as high as over $600/semester, they’ll now be under $350. Chromebooks will also be $100 cheaper. Less than half of the students at OCC could afford books. OCC officials believe this program, rolling out in 2019, will be critical for student retention. They note that community college enrollment has recently declined.

“When a student enrolls but can’t complete because they don’t have the materials they become a dropout, and that’s an enrollment decline that is unconscionable, enrollment decline based on the amount of people you have well you get that, but one where you lose a student because they can’t afford the books that’s an unconscionable enrollment decline and I think it will help,” said OCC President Dr. Casey Crabill.

The program is optional, every student is automatically registered, but if they don’t want to, they can opt out.  OCC  hopes that this program among others, will make it easier for low-income or non-traditional students to go to school and finish with a degree.

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