From Oct. 18 to Nov. 17, the Black Student Union will be holding a textbook drive. Students who are interested in donating their old or used textbooks are advised to drop them off at Ms. Taylor’s office in Building 1, Room 1-133.

The textbooks will be used by the Black Student Union to start a book-loaning program for next spring. The program will be open to all low-income students.

Students will be required to complete some paperwork from the financial aid office in order to demonstrate that they are low-income or qualify for financial aid.

“The Book Loaning Program does want to help all low-income students because Skyline College is the community that we want to serve, not just one group of people there but all students,” said Christopher Holmes, member of the Black Student Union. “The more donations that we receive for the Book Loaning Program, the more students we can serve.”

The program was formed as the Black Student Union members brainstormed ideas in an attempt to find some way to help their fellow students. The brainstorm session eventually led to the formation of the Book Loaning Program.

Members of the Black Student Union were able to identify that a number of members and friends had problems with getting their hands on books in time for classes.

“The issue is that a lot of students with or without financial aid, TRiO, FYE, EOPS, were finding it difficult to find books on time to attend class,” Pat Dreamer, club adviser, said, “so the  (Black Student) Union decided that was one of the things that they will take on. There is a book-loaning process in the bookstore with TRiO, but if you think about if you aren’t a TRiO person or EOPS person, your books aren’t provided for you, plus you got to get there on time before the books run out. Therefore, that’s why they (the Black Student Union) started it.”

Donating your used textbooks will allow the Black Student Union to build up a library of textbooks, which will be used for the Book Loaning Program to help your fellow students here at Skyline College.

Students who are interested in signing up for the program next spring will be required to sign a contract and to meet a few conditions. The most important conditions are that students must return all rentals in clean and fully resalable condition, meet with an assigned or chosen mentor in order to guarantee success at Skyline, and maintain at least a 2.5 GPA.