PCC’s previously provided $200 student Bookstore credit has been discontinued this fall as COVID-19 era funding and subsequent programs come to a close, throwing uncertainty into the accessibility of textbooks to the wider student body.
“This semester I tried to use my bookstore credit and that’s when I saw the caveat where it’s like we’re not doing the bookstore credit anymore,” third-year PCC student Nathan Nava said. “But, if you receive financial aid, they’ll just take a chunk out of your financial aid. So I ended up not doing the financial aid and I ended up just using it out of my own pocket.”
The Bookstore credit was first introduced to PCC students in the fall semester of 2021 as a $150 bookstore credit, providing financial assistance for supplies such as course textbooks and other materials. The funding was then increased to $200 in the fall of 2022.
Students were encouraged to make use of the funding with the assistance of thorough announcements and emails containing information about the credit’s existence, however, PCC did not notify students of the cessation of funding in the same manner. While this seems like a sudden shift, there was already circulating knowledge that funding would eventually come to an end.
Funding earmarked under the COVID-19 emergency officially ended on June 30, 2023, and the vouchers and other offerings were never expected to be communicated as long-term programs, according to Vice President of Business and Administrative Services Candace Jones in an email.
“The various programs under COVID-19 were always communicated as temporary programs that utilized HEERF (Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund)/CARES funding,” Jones said. “With all things related to communications, we can always do better. Our intentions are always to lead with what resources are available because new students find it most useful to know what is currently available, not what was previously available. Improving our processes is always our goal.”
All of the communications about the end of the bookstore voucher came at Board of Trustee meetings and College Council where information was shared with on-campus shareholders, including the Management Association, The Academic Senate, and Associated Students. For first-year students, the availability of continuing programs was shared through First Year Experience (FYE), success coaches, and various campus centers.
The funding for the voucher cost $1,054,787.72 in the first year of the program for the 2021-2022 academic year and was increased to $2,767,184.14 in the second year of the program in the academic year 2022-2023, according to data shared by Jones in an email.
The program, when available, was not widely used by the majority of the student body, as in the first academic year of the program from 2021 to 2022 only 17% of credit and non-credit students used the offering, while its usage increased to 40% of credit and non-credit students in the 2022-2023 academic year, according to data shared by Jones in the same email.
Without the availability of The CARES Act money and HEERF money, it was not sustainable to keep it running with PCC’s general funds.
“The bookstore voucher program was on the order of millions of dollars a year and that was not a cost that was going to be borne by college general funds,” PCC Spokesperson Alex Boekelheide said. “So as the COVID crisis comes to a close, so do some of these measures we made to draw students back.”
The availability of the bookstore voucher is still offered to students affiliated with programs like EOPS, DSP&S, NextUp, CARE, and STARS, according to Jones.
There are currently no plans to bring programs like the voucher back, as it was only made possible by “the emergency protections offered by the State of California and funding associated with CARES/HEERF.”
Multiple professors did not comment on the record about the bookstore voucher removal or how it potentially altered the way they would teach their courses.
Assistant English Professor Kristin Kaz did not respond to a request for comment.
