Marlon Pitter
Connector Editor

The newly erected River Hawk Shop at University Crossing was designed to help make buying books more convenient for students, according to bookstore director Ginger Defino. While some students have found the location more easily accessible, others say have not found the new store extremely helpful.

Matthew Sweeney, who is currently working toward a doctorate in criminal justice, says his difficulties purchasing books predate the new bookstore in University Crossing. He says he has faced obstacles obtaining books through the bookstore a number of times.

“It seems that every semester, I am not able to find one to two books because they are either out of them, or for some other reason, like the professor never asked the bookstore to purchase them,” Sweeney said.

While some books students have tried to purchase were temporarily unavailable, there were alternative options, some better than others, to obtain their required class materials.

One possible solution was to “special order” their books through the campus bookstore. By paying for books in advance, books are sent to the store and students are notified upon their arrival. For one anonymous student, his experience was not as smooth, he says.

“I received an email saying my order was ready. However, when I went, they kept saying it was not ready and to come back tomorrow,” he said. “After a week, I went in and gave them all of my information and confirmation number, and they finally put my order together. It was a long and tedious process.”

Delays in purchasing books can put students and professors in awkward positions when classes commence. For some professors, tough decisions have had to be made on whether or not to wait for everyone to acquire their books and how to conduct their classes in the meantime.

“From past experience, I’ve learned not to introduce assignments that require the book until the third week of class or so,” said adjunct English Professor Melissa Juchniewicz.

Associate history Professor Shehong Chen says the bookstore not having the required books for her class affected her teaching.

“I have to organize my teaching entirely differently,” said Chen. “I can’t assume that the students have the books.”

In the meantime, students say they have tried to obtain books for classes through online third-party sellers, and their efforts have met mixed results.

“I used Amazon, and the service was fast, easy, and the customer service was great,” said the same anonymous student. “It was also less expensive.”

Freshman and political science major Tyler Farley, on the other hand, says he had a “terrible experience” after buying books online through valorebooks.com.

Along with their difficulties obtaining certain books through the River Hawk Shop, students have also shared mixed feelings about the new bookstore’s location and convenience.

Sweeney says not having to travel between North and South campuses for books is a positive aspect of the new location.

“Being a South Campus major, I constantly had to go to North to purchase books for North courses, as well as online courses,” he said. “It was the biggest pain.”

In addition to less travel, Sweeney also says he has seen lines and wait times decrease dramatically in the new bookstore, as compared to the two previous ones.

“One thing I will give them credit for is that they have many registers open, and it reduces lines of 30 to 40 down to no more than 15,” he says. “I had to go a few times this year and waited no more than 10 minutes to get to the front of the line.”

The ease of finding and purchasing one’s books, however, is one aspect that the aforementioned anonymous student says he does not feel has improved.

“I think it is harder to get books than it was before. It was less chaotic, and everything was more organized,” he says.

Defino says her employees are trained to help students navigate the book stacks and find the items they need. She also says that because most of her employees are students, they can “understand the students’ perspective.”

“Every employee is supposed to approach customers and ask for their schedules, so we can literally walk them to where the book is,” says Defino. “Then we explain the shelf tags in case they came back down and it’s busy or they can’t get to someone.”

Even in taking these measures, Defino says, other circumstances may arise resulting in students not being able to acquire their books and she would “have to look at each one specifically.”

“Are they not finding it because the professor hasn’t given us the information? Are they not finding it because they didn’t have their schedule and they’re trying to remember what class they have?” said Defino. “It’s on an individual basis.”

Moving forward, Sweeney says he thinks buying books from the River Hawk Shop can be improved with more coordination between the textbook manager and professors.

At the same time, professors like Sandra Miller and Kimberly Blanton are considering what they can do to make their students’ experiences better in and out of the bookstore.

Miller says, retrospectively, that she could have ordered an extra copy of her required text and put it in the library until students were able to obtain the book.

Blanton says she may consider reducing the number of textbooks required for her classes in the future, possibly removing them from her classes altogether.

“I’ve thought about eliminating a textbook. They are so expensive, and students are already borrowing too much money,” says Blanton.

Miller says, though she is not as familiar with students lacking books as full-time professors may be, she would like to see this issue addressed.

“Students do not need their UML sweatshirts and Snickers bars,” she says, “but they do need books.”

Connector staff writer Tyler Cote and contributor Amaris Torres contributed to this article.