Proposed bookstore contract would change how students order and receive textbooks

Photo credit: Sower Staff

By Nora Betts

Managing Editor

A proposed five-year contract with a new bookstore vendor would change how students order and receive textbooks, Concordia’s Chief Operations Officer Kim Boyce said at Tuesday’s Student Senate meeting.

The proposed contract for the future of Concordia’s bookstore would charge students a flat-rate book fee for courses requiring textbooks. Boyce said this “equitable access” model will be implemented either in Fall 2025 or Fall 2026, to be determined by the end of January 2025.

Boyce said the model for textbooks was proposed by the bookstore company Akademos. Concordia’s five-year contract with the current campus bookstore vendor, Follett, expires in May, and a new five-year contract must be determined by the end of January.

The equitable access model would charge students a flat rate of $18-25 per credit hour for all courses requiring textbooks, Boyce said. If a course does not require textbooks, no charge will be issued.

“For example, if you take 18 hours in a semester and it’s 20 bucks a credit hour, it’s $360 for that semester,” Boyce said. “Students will not be charged for courses that do not have a book assigned. Some courses just don’t. In particular, art– they have just supplies only. So that would not be charged.”

Students opting in would be charged the flat-rate textbook fee through their Student Account. Every course textbook would be shipped to Concordia and given to the student as a bundle at the beginning of the semester.

“You’ll have a choice of online or print copies, and you’ll receive your books in a bundle,” said Boyce.

Students opting out of the model would be refunded the flat-rate textbook fee. However, they would have to acquire textbooks on their own through alternative vendors like Amazon.

Students would have the choice to opt in or opt out of the model per semester, not per course.

This model would remove the ability to buy books in the campus bookstore, which is currently on the lower level of the Janzow Campus Center. Textbooks could only be ordered in bundles for the semester through a website. Individual textbooks could not be purchased on-campus or online through a Concordia bookstore website.

Akademos’ proposal would also give Concordia control of the “fan shop,” which sells apparel and gifts within the campus bookstore. Follett’s current contract with Concordia gives the private vendor control over prices and designs, which Boyce says he wants to change.

Bookstore/fan shop employees are hired and paid by Follett, not by Concordia. Boyce said a new contract would allow Concordia employees to manage and run the fan shop and would give Concordia more creative freedom in designing products.