LomaBooks is a new student life and formation (SLAF) initiative that enrolls traditional undergraduate students into a program that automatically orders their course materials. Mary Paul, vice president of SLAF, emailed all Point Loma Nazarene University undergraduate students in April, introducing them to the new program.
LomaBooks is advertised on the PLNU website to be a better way for students to get their books. It is currently unavailable for graduate or accelerated undergraduate programs, but automatically enrolls traditional undergraduates when they register for courses.
“Our LomaBooks program makes getting your course materials more convenient and affordable.” The program advertises: “Receive all your course materials before the first day of class. Save 35-50% on the cost of course materials each term. Benefit from a highly personalized service.”
When undergraduate students are automatically opted into Lomabooks, they are agreeing to be charged for additional course material fees in their Workday account.
Interim Provost and Chief Academic Officer Jim Daichendt, who took over the role after the previous provost, Kerry Fulcher, was appointed president, has sent emails out to undergraduate students explaining the logistics of the program.
“With this rental program, all your required course materials are included at the rate of $22.00 per credit hour,” Daichedndt said via email. “The average student is estimated to save as much as $300 on textbooks for a semester.”
In other terms, if a student is taking a full course load of 17 units, they will be charged $374 in their Workday account for course materials. A three or four unit class like CHEM 1000 for example, would cost either $66 or $88 for course materials.
As for where students are being charged, those who choose to stay opted in will receive a book charge on their bill in Workday by September 13.
In regard to opting out, “You have the option to opt out of the Lomabooks program. However, before opting out we strongly encourage students to explore the benefits of the program and compare what we will be offered specifically to them,” Daichendt said.
The change that Lomabooks brings for students is that they are responsible for opting out of the program if they do not want to be charged the automatic fee of $22.00 per credit hour.
Prior to this, students were held accountable to order and add payment through the bookstore to receive course materials. Now it is up to the student to stay opted in or opt out before the window closes.
Anya Selner Tan, PLNU’s bookstore manager, spoke with students about their choice of how they get their course materials.
“I received overwhelming positive feedback from students at the Student Resource Fair, almost everyone I talked to had got their books through LomaBooks,” Tan said via email. “If a professor adds books, switches books, you drop or add a class and need different materials, no problem, we take care of that within the LomaBooks program.”
Some students have had their materials put on backorder. Tan explained that LomaBooks ordered a large capacity of materials, however they did not anticipate the amount of students who would opt into the automatic program.
“Our initial buy is 80% of course capacity, expecting for 80% of students to use the program,” Tan said. “We had some classes where 100% of eligible students remained opted in. So in those cases we did need to do reorders for course content.”
Supporting the claim of LomaBooks saving students money, Tan said, “While assisting students I have seen as big a savings as $459, and they choose to stay opted in. We had numerous students that opted out and then came to the bookstore for help on how to opt back in, because they realized that they were going to end up paying more if they got course content a la carte.”
Fourth-year political science and philosophy major Nathan Deboef opted in for LomaBooks but shared his concerns on whether or not it is the best option for all students.
“I think that it is a great program for those that are taking STEM courses. Most of my friends in those majors have mentioned that the books are expensive.” Deboef said over the phone.
Deboef opted into the program but emphasized that it is up to each student’s specific situation.
“At the end of the day I think what makes the biggest difference is doing the work to price the books yourself and make a decision,” Deboef said. “It’s totally dependent on the student so I can’t give a straight answer, but I think that PLNU’s intentions were good with this program, it just does not fit everybody. If you’re paying for your own books, it doesn’t make sense for most non-stem majors.”
Students had the ability to opt out as of September 13 by accessing the LomaBooks site, scrolling to the bottom of the page to the “Can I opt-out of the program?” tab and following the link. The link sends students to a last chance advertisement of the program before students can opt out by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking “I want to opt out”.
Katie Segarra, fourth-year graphic design major has had a different experience with LomaBooks and decided to opt out.
“I just didn’t need to get any [books] because of the fact that I’m a senior, so I don’t take that many GE’s now. All my classes are either labs, like computer labs, or visual art classes,” Segarra said. “But every other semester I’ve had to look and see what books I need, but even in the past, I feel like I’ve not bought books from PLNU’s bookstore. In previous years I bought them from Amazon or somewhere online.”
