The Colorado State University-Pueblo bookstore sounds nice to the perspective students ear and looks pretty on paper but when students actually try to utilize the store when purchasing textbooks or access codes, it turns into a complete nightmare.

When walking into the bookstore students see the mess caused by the remodel of the Occhiato University Center. The store is cluttered with racks, and unorganized shelves. There are very few books because the store is in a temporary state and has little room to house them.

Along with this chaos, students have been getting the wrong books required by instructors while paying almost triple the price. Granted the university doesn’t make the prices, the publishers of the books do. “They gave me the wrong book,” senior Quinn Van Treeck said. “I’ve gone in three times to get the one we need and had to rent it in the end.”

Students are having to find other means to buy books or share with other students. The use of retailers such as Amazon and Chegg have been adopted by students as a way to afford multiple books at once. Along with afford ability these retailers treat their customers better than the CSU-Pueblo bookstore.

Just after the first week of school most students are scrambling for money after buying textbooks. This adds to the stress level of most students when the thing they should be most focused on is learning not about spending $200 on one book. The cost for an Intro to Sociology book is $249.00 but renting it on Chegg it costs $30.49 plus shipping.

“I don’t get any of my books from the bookstore,” Kaelyn Araujo-Vuittonet, a nursing student said. “I get my books on Amazon or Chegg. I rent them because they are usually a couple of hundred dollars cheaper.”

The university should not only have a better way for students to find the books they are required to buy, but also look into more affordable books for students to buy. Regardless of construction in the OUC the university should use other places on campus to house the large bookstore.

With the Belmont Residence Hall only being used for storage, the university should fine a larger space with in the 130,573 gross square feet. The building is currently only being used for storage and has plenty of space to help provided a decent bookstore to students.

The university and all the professors should also give 100 percent support and help start the open book initiative. Meaning that the professors here at the university would write the books for their courses and they could sell them for cheaper or even check the books out to the students each semester.

“Not every class can use this model, due to the type of class,” Elizabeth Christian, the assistant professor library services said. “We are really hoping to build a sustainable model here.” Christian also said that they need more students to help with this through events, and even student accounts of their bookstore issues.