DANBURY, CONN. — Western Connecticut State University students will have the option to rent textbooks required for courses in a wide range of academic disciplines with the launch this fall of a cost-saving rental program at WCSU Bookstore sites on the Midtown and Westside campuses.

Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, which owns and manages the WCSU Bookstore, will introduce the textbook rental system at WestConn for the fall 2010 semester after a successful pilot program over the past year received an enthusiastic response from students at 25 campus bookstores nationwide. Barnes & Noble estimates that students who exercise the option to rent textbooks typically will realize a savings of more than 50 percent on the comparable cost of purchasing the same books in newly printed condition.

Hil Estock, vice president of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, observed that the new rental program provides an additional alternative to existing WCSU bookstore options for purchase of new and used books, as well as textbooks in digital format. “We are committed to providing students with the widest range of content options and price points available,” Estock noted.

WestConn Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Walter Bernstein welcomed Barnes & Noble’s textbook rental program as “a good example of how the company is trying to help students deal with the reality of the increasing costs of purchasing textbooks. I commend the company for taking this important step, which provides yet another option for students at WestConn.”

Terms of the new program require that students provide a valid credit card as security for the rental, while payment may be made in all forms of tender accepted for bookstore purchases. Selected textbooks available for rental will be marked with a “Rent Me” sticker and may be brought to the bookstore rental counter for processing. Rentals also may be arranged by shopping online at the WCSU Bookstore website, https://www.wcsu.edu/bookstore/, which will specify a rental option for those textbooks available under the new program.

Rentals may be converted to purchase during the first two weeks of the academic semester; rental periods expire at the end of each semester, with books due back no later than 10 days after the last day of finals for that term. Students may return books in person or by mail, and Barnes & Noble will accept books with highlighted and marked pages on the same terms that it currently accepts used books that students sell back to the WCSU Bookstore. Students who provide an e-mail address will receive reminder notices as the end of the term approaches to indicate the deadline for rental returns.

For more information on the textbook rental program, contact Barnes & Noble College Booksellers representative Karen DiScala by phone at (908) 991-2378 or (908) 698-3245, or by e-mail at kdiscala@bncollege.com.

 

Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics
of New England’s best small private universities.