Students react to trial phase of textbook rental program

This fall, Lehigh entered its third of six pilot semesters for its textbook rental program, Learning Unlimited. Now a year into its application, students are continuing to assess its fairness and accessibility. 

According to the Learning Unlimited website, the program offers required course materials — both physical and digital — to full-time undergraduate students for $375 per semester, which is charged to students’ Bursar accounts. 

Students who enroll in the program are supposed to receive faculty-selected and accurate versions of required textbooks, lab manuals, access codes and digital materials before the first day of class.  

Renee Lutz, manager of The Lehigh Store, said the program was launched in fall 2023 to increase equity and convenience.

“We’ve seen students struggle, looking at books and going, ‘Okay, how am I going to do this? Can I find it somewhere else? What am I going to do?’” Lutz said. “Then they’re three weeks into classes, still looking for the cheapest version of a book.”

She said the program is meant to simplify students’ ability to fulfill textbook requirements, as they can place an order and then receive a notification when their materials are available for pickup at The Mail Center.

Students can verify their order through the Learning Unlimited website, but if a student doesn’t find a textbook listed on the site, Lutz said they should contact her with their syllabus. Then, she’ll talk to the professor or add the textbook to the order.

Lutz said The Lehigh Store staff purchases the textbooks from wholesalers and publishers, shelve the books by course and section and pack each order individually to be ready for pick up.

“Our goal is that we want (students) to be prepared on the first day of class,” Lutz said. “We want you to be able to hit the ground running.”

Students are automatically opted into the program but can opt out by clicking the option, “Opt out and Opt Back in” on the website. 

Lutz said this enrollment process is how the team decided to set up the program, and no further explanation about why students are automatically enrolled was provided.

Benjamin Sucheski, ‘26, has used Learning Unlimited since it was first introduced last year. He said he’s had a positive experience with the program for the last two semesters. 

However, he said only one of his textbooks arrived at The Mail Center this semester during the first week of classes. 

“I thought (the program) was pretty worthwhile because I’d get four or five books minimum,” Sucheski said. “This seemed like a good deal, but then this was the first time where there’s been an issue with it.”

Sucheski said he received his remaining textbooks a month after returning to campus, but he doesn’t blame The Mail Center staff because they helped him resolve the issue.

He said while waiting for his course materials to arrive, he found free PDF versions of some of his textbooks online. However, he couldn’t find a free version of his organic chemistry textbook and was left without it for the first month of school. 

“I kept texting friends, ‘Could you send me this week’s homework questions?’ just so I could do them,” Sucheski said. 

Lutz said if students haven’t received their books, they should contact The Lehigh Store and The Mail Center, and regularly check their emails for updates on arrival time.

She said the staff will be able to tell these students if there’s a problem with the order or if the book has already arrived at The Mail Center, Lutz said. 

“I have a cartload of books that have been sitting in The Mail Center since the beginning of August that people haven’t picked up,” Lutz said.

She said with each semester, the program is improving.

“I think there are hiccups along the way,” Lutz said. “There always will be. But I do believe the true mass bulk of the orders were sitting in the mail center ready for students to pick up more than a week before classes started.”

Theodora Chacharone, ‘25, opted into Learning Unlimited for the first time this semester after finding the program’s price and convenience to be “worth it.” 

Chacharone said when she arrived at school, all of her physical textbooks were ready, but the online Harvard Business Review packages required for some classes weren’t covered by Learning Unlimited — one of which costs more than $100.

“It’s frustrating that I paid for the plan assuming that everything would be covered, but then I still had to pay additional fees anyway for other reading materials,” Chacharone said.

Lutz said financial coverage of the Harvard Business Review packages has always been an issue since the program started, but The Lehigh Store staff is actively working on a solution for covering these packages for the spring semester.

She said students should do their “due diligence” and double-check if the program is a good option for them. 

“If you have one book and it’s listed at $50, opt out,” Lutz said. “But if you have a bunch of classes, and if some of them are showing anything with the word ‘access’ attached to it, double check.”