Eastern to Begin Automatically Charging for Textbooks in Fall 2024

Jessica Vieira | Editor-In-Chief

Along with tuition increases, Eastern is working behind the curtain to raise prices for students further. According to anonymous sources, starting next semester, Fall 2024, there will be an automatic charge to students’ accounts that is meant to help pay for textbooks. This mechanic is used by UConn, called Husky Book Bundle - it is a collaboration with Barnes and Noble that the Connecticut State Universities will all adopt. Instead of a student buying the textbooks that they need on their own, there will be a set price for textbooks based on how many classes a student is taking.  

Students will be charged $18.75 per credit hour. For the average five class schedule at Eastern, that would total around $281.25. Because it’s a fee, unless students opt out of this, it is an automatic charge to their accounts. Sources were told that there will be an email sent out before the semester begins with the option to opt out. Students will only be able to opt out entirely, so if they need textbooks for one class, but not the four others they are taking, they must pay as if they need textbooks for all five classes. This includes Independent studies and internships.

Another catch to this new policy is that students will not own the textbooks. They will be rentals that need to be returned at the end of the semester. It has not yet been decided if the books being rented by students will be physical textbooks or PDFs. This program is useful for majors that require many expensive textbooks, but for majors that don’t often require expensive books, students would end up paying way more than they need to with this in place.

This will be announced in August, but it is unknown if the agreement between Barnes and Noble and the CSU universities has been signed. None of this is official and is subject to change.