Back-to-school season is in full swing and Morgan State University (MSU) assistant professor and award-winning journalist Dr. Stacey Patton has already raised more than $10,000 to help financially-strapped students purchase their textbooks this semester.
Through Patton’s annual Ida B. Wells-Barnett Textbook Fund — now in its third year since she arrived at MSU in 2015 — she helps nearly 40 students across academic disciplines who attend the Baltimore-based historically Black university.
Students receive a maximum of $250 to purchase their books from Amazon.com or MSU’s campus bookstore.
“I’ve noticed over the years that the price of textbooks has basically been soaring. Textbook prices are astronomical,” Patton said. “A lot of students who get financial aid to get their tuition and room and board covered, or their meals, don’t get separate awards for their books.”
For the 2017-18 academic year, the College Board placed the average cost of textbooks between $1,220 and $1,400.
MSU, like other HBCUs, serves a significant population of first-generation and low-income students, many of whom are food or housing insecure, children of incarcerated parents or are working while in school. When Patton arrives on campus the first week of every semester, “I have a long line of students waiting just for books,” she said.
Patton shared that she has had struggling students come to her office hours four of five weeks into the semester embarrassed or ashamed to tell her that they did not have a textbook.
