By Emily Salisbury

Where has the Glenville State College on-campus bookstore gone? Unfortunately, we no longer have an on-campus bookstore as of last semester. Instead, a spirit store has been created in the small room beside the cafeteria, formerly known as the fishbowl. The room used to be used by faculty members and other small groups for quieter dining.

The removal of the on-campus bookstore came as a surprise to many of the students at Glenville State. The Phoenix began to wonder if kicking the bookstore to the curb was a good decision or a not-so-good decision for the college. I went out on behalf of The Phoenix to ask the students of the college, the ones who have truly been affected by the sudden change, to see what they had to say.

Brianna Deel, an art major, had this to say about losing the bookstore: “Taking away the college bookstore has been quite an inconvenience for me. I used to be able to just walk into the store and buy my paints and other art supplies, but now I’m having to make trips to art stores more than 30 minutes away for my supplies,”

Deel concluded in saying, “Taking away the bookstore did nothing to help the students here; if anything, it’s made things harder for us,”

Another student, Kia Sleesman, provided a statement for The Phoenix: “Well, I personally haven’t been affected by the college removing the bookstore because I wouldn’t buy my books from there due to them being overpriced, and they’re still overpriced on the new site the school uses to order books from. A lot of people I knew though used the bookstore and switching to the online bookstore I’ve heard a lot of complaints come from them.”

Sleesman also spoke on the downsizing of the bookstore to include only Glenville State College paraphernalia: “I remember when things like pencils, pens, notebooks, and even phone chargers and headphones were sold at the book store. I wish they would bring that stuff back. All they have is clothing items and once again they’re over-priced and no one really cares about them,”

The last student who spoke to The Phoenix was Samantha Conrad, a sophomore here at Glenville State. “I have been negatively affected by the college taking away the on-campus bookstore because I’m not able to purchase a book for a class on quick notice; instead, I have to order it and wait for the book to ship to me and sometimes the book can take upwards to a month to arrive,”

Conrad finished in saying, “I believe closing down the on-campus bookstore wasn’t a well-thought-out choice and no one bothered to ask the students how they felt about the idea of not having a bookstore on campus,”

Overall, it seems as though students aren’t too happy with the removal of the on-campus bookstore. The students who spoke with The Phoenix, don’t seem to believe the online alternative, eFollett, is an improvement from what we had before. They all also expressed confusion when discussing the spirit store; they didn’t understand why it was created in the first place. Students feel strongly that the college should have talked to them before making a decision like this one because it affects them and they all seem to have strong opinions on no longer having an on-campus bookstore at Glenville State College.