Student Body President Ashton Martin and her administration, in line with their platform of textbook affordability, requested in July that the UNC Student Stores suspend the newly implemented digital delivery textbook system until they can confirm that it is not “First Day” or inclusive access.
UNC Student Stores started using digital delivery in spring 2019 as a method for students to buy textbooks. With the digital delivery system, students in participating classes receive emails with codes to access course materials. Students can respond to the email in order to opt into the purchase, at which point their ConnectCarolina accounts will be charged. Students can also arrange to pay in an alternative way or choose not to participate in digital delivery.
Nick Sengstaken, Martin’s undergraduate chief of staff, assembled the executive memorandum requesting that the implementation of digital delivery stop until further information about the process was given. The memorandum also made a number of suggestions for adjustments to the UNC Student Stores contract with Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, which began in 2016. These suggestions included the creation of a UNC Affordability Coalition and the Student Stores website actively displaying alternative prices from third-party sites, such as Amazon.com and Chegg.com.
Sengstaken said a major concern with the digital delivery process is that it requires students to reply to an email, which could likely get lost in the sea of emails students receive at the beginning of a semester. The intricacies of the email, Sengstaken said, are included in a “wall of text” that is not easily understandable.
“I would say that that’s fairly archaic in terms of purchasing a course material, especially when you can purchase one online through the Student Stores already, you just simply can’t do that with this program,” he said.
Sengstaken is also concerned with possible similarities between digital delivery and “First Day” or inclusive access, which has in some occasions referred to a university automatically billing a student account for class materials prior to the first day of classes. Sengstaken began taking action against inclusive access last year as one of former Student Body President Savannah Putnam’s affordability co-chairpeople.
Inclusive access, Sengstaken said, can reduce students’ ability to use third-party sites like Amazon.com and Chegg.com to find lower prices. He said inclusive access could also cause issues if holds were placed on student accounts.
Martin said the core of her mission is to make sure that students have the best and most affordable access possible to textbooks and access codes. She said she hopes to work with Student Stores in order to reach these goals.
“To be fair to the people we’ve been working with, we did ruffle some feathers with the memo we sent out, and after meeting with them, they have agreed that although it was much too late to change it for this semester, they have agreed that they’ll make the email a little more transparent,” Martin said.
