Historically Black Winston-Salem State University has partnered with Barnes & Noble College to implement BNC First Day Complete, a course material delivery model that will drive student success by ensuring all students are prepared to begin learning on the first day of class.
First Day Complete, an innovative course material delivery model, addresses equitable access, convenience, and affordability across all courses at an institution by bundling the cost of course materials into tuition and ensuring students have all their materials for the semester available on or before the first day of class. WSSU will cover all associated expenses so that no additional costs will be passed on to students. Faculty members can choose the materials that are best suited for their teaching, regardless of publisher or format.
Before starting the term, students will receive an email from the bookstore prompting them to select their preferred delivery method. The bookstore will prepare the materials for each student and notify them when the materials have shipped or are available for in-store pickup. Digital materials will be delivered directly through students’ learning management system. The university will also offer a $500 book credit to all graduate students.
“We are incredibly excited to offer free textbooks to our undergraduate students this fall,” said Elwood Robinson, chancellor of Winston-Salem State University. “This will certainly be a game-changer for many of our families by eliminating a significant educational expense.”
Are you kidding me Elwood! The bookstore at WSSU should have remained state owned instead selling out to the rapacious and greedy Jeff Bezos. The state owned bookstore was a gateway for many native born Black Americans the opportunity to send their children to college. Unfortunately, WSSU and many other misguided HBCUs have followed this same course of action. As a result, Barnes & Noble (Jeff Bezos and Company) will be able write this off as “given to the so-called Black community”. For those so-called Black HBCU administrators and Board members who approved of Barnes & Noble taking over the state owned bookstore should submit their letter of resignation immediately. In case you didn’t know, Barnes & Noble had revenues of an estimated $4 BILLION last year and then Bezos gives HBCUs a few pennies and the confused “Black misleadership class” (Black Agenda Report, 2020) administrators are acting like Amos and Andy.
As an alum of WSSU – who has worked at PWIs for the past 27 years, I am very glad to see this happen for the current students enrolled at the university. We have no problem when these types of opportunities are given to PWIs; but when the same opportunities are given to HBCUs – they are deemed as losing their identity. Chancellor Robinson, if other opportunities arise that will benefit the institution that Simon Green Atkins built, please pursue them – keeping in mind what Atkins was trying to establish for African Americans in the country.
It absolutely amazes me when you find these very seasoned (old) so-called native born Black Americans who proudly pontificates about being an alum of an HBCU (in this case, WSSU) all the while working (“shucking and jiving”, “smiling whenever their white peers say something, and being disparately treated daily) at an HWCUs (that mean Historically White Colleges and Universities for those who are unconscious(hint! hint!) for decades. Talk about hypocrisy of the highest order!
Further, WSSU has lost the lion’s share of its native born Black American identity years ago on numerous levels. In other words, WSSU has been moved in the direction of being identified as non-HBCU akin to what you see at Morgan State, NC A &T, NCCU, ECSU, UMES, Howard, Talladega College, and BCU, etc.
Finally, I would highly suggest that take your seasoned type thinking and read some more on Simon Green Atkins because he emphasized “communal support and self-sufficiency” as compared to outsiders.