The Campus Bookstore acknowledges the struggles students had purchasing books online prior to winter quarter, and has implemented changes to help fix the issue, according to Director of Business Services Ty Stone.
“We deconstructed the web order system,” Stone said. “We’re expecting it will run a lot smoother.”
The problems of winter quarter were multi-faceted. One issue, pertaining to when they can process financial aid orders, Stone said they have no power over. But Stone said they have increased the limit of financial aid per order (from $600 to $1000), which she said could “fix two-thirds of the issues.”
Stone admits that they were shocked by the amount of orders they received online. She said it was more than they had expected.
“We had so many orders, we were like ‘oh my gosh,’ Stone said.
However, she said that spring quarter is lighter and that she does not anticipate having issues like the ones in the winter. She also acknowledged the small stature of the physical bookstore and the difficulties that can cause.
“When we look at the bookstore, it was built years ago,” Stone said. “We’ve the done best we can do with our constraints. We are conscious of the concerns.”
According to Bookstore Manager Ron Bultema, only being able to process financial orders 10 days prior to the start of the quarter is a problem.
“It’s always been that way,” Bultema said. “It opens the floodgates. It’s like being at the bottom of the Hoover Dam. We don’t sleep about a week before.”
Stone said that they try and learn from every rush to improve the quality of the store.
“We can’t predict everything,” Stone said. “After every rush, we try and plan.”
The bookstore is always looking at ways to improve the processing time (online and in the physical bookstore) and they are “staying focused on productivity,” according to Bultema.
He said they are confident that things will be better in spring quarter.
Bultema also said that the bookstore has an advisory committee comprised of students.
“We listen to this group of students,” Bultema said.
Anyone that is interested in joining the advisory committee should e-mail Bultema at ron.bultema@sinclair.edu.