As midterms come to a close for the fall 2022 semester, some N.C. A&T students still have not received all of their free textbooks from the bookstore.

In 2021, N.C. A&T announced that they were partnering with Barnes & Noble College to provide free textbooks for undergraduate students for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. However, many students’ textbooks and other ordered supplies have been on backorder and students are unsure if they will be receiving them.

Students were given the option prior to the start of the semester to have their textbooks delivered directly to their home, or the alternative option was to pick the books up directly from the bookstore. Those who chose to pick up their books from the bookstore would then be sent an email when their books were ready for pick-up.

Though the process seems fairly straightforward, some students have yet to receive all of their textbooks for the semester.

Senior biology student Amber McGill says she is still missing very important books for one of her pre-med courses.

“I went to get a textbook for my pre-medical course and they said that they do not have it in stock, so they sent me to this website where I have to pay for a subscription,” McGill said. “I should not have to pay for a textbook that should already be free. That makes no sense.”

During the 2021-22 school year, some students experienced the same issues with their textbooks that many students are still experiencing now.

“My textbooks were on backorder for a long time,” senior biology student Maliyah Forsyth said. “It was almost like a month or two before our professor had to start postponing assignments because we did not have the textbook to do the assignment.”

Some textbooks were not able to be stocked properly in the school bookstore due to the textbook publishers not having enough print editions.

Textbook manager Taylor Fluid said that they are trying their best to get books here as fast as they can.

“Some of our books are out of print and that is solely on the publisher,” Fluid said. “We can not do anything about an out of print book, but the backorders that we have now are mostly books that are out of print.”

Even though some students still have not gotten their supplies, the bookstore employees have made great progress in making sure students have what they need for their classes.

 “We used to have over 4,000 books on backorder. We now have about 500. We try our best to get the books in and out,” said Fluid.

With midterms right around the corner, it is important that students have the necessary tools to have a successful rest of the semester.