February 6, 2026
Volume 94 • Issue 14
FSUgatepost.com
Live to the hoop!
Sophomore Hailey Ring (center) going up for a shot while teammates cheer her on against Fitchburg State on Feb. 6.
Adrien Gobin / THE GATEPOST
Survey shows frustration with bookstore and textbook usage By Cole Johnson Staff Writer In an unscientific survey by The Gatepost of 250 students, 38.5% of the students who bought books from the FSU bookstore said they experienced difficulty acquiring their books for Fall 2025. The survey was conducted between Nov. 25 and Dec. 11. Students were asked how many books they purchased for the semester, how much they spent on books, and how they acquired their books, among other topics. Robert Totino, vice president of Finance, Technology and Administration, said this figure was unexpected. “I was surprised - not in a good way - to see so many students having to have difficulty there.” In July of 2025, after a decades-long relationship with bookstore vendor Follett, Framingham State began five-year contracts with eCampus.com
to provide books and academic materials, as well as University Gear Shop (UGS) for merchandise. Totino, who oversees the bookstore operation, said he worked with the Dean of Students Office and the Office of Marketing & Communications to alert students of the new system over the summer. “We tried to get at least two or three campus emails out to the students … but no matter how many times you try to communicate, communicate, communicate, [problems can occur] on any level,” he said. According to Totino, eCampus.com manages the portal where students place orders for books, and their “brick-andmortar” partner, UGS, receives those orders. Phil Catalogna, assistant manager of the bookstore, said he knew there would be some difficulties with the new model. “It was our first semester with the new system,” he said.
“So there were a lot of learning curves and hiccups along the way, but I think this semester has been much smoother compared to last.” Bookstore difficulties Of the complaints regarding the bookstore, the most common was slow delivery times. Over half of the students who encountered problems buying from the bookstore cited issues with slow delivery or packages not arriving. “One of my books that I rented never arrived, so I have no book to return,” one survey respondent said. Catalogna said there could be multiple reasons for delays. “Some of the professors did not order the books on time, so they didn’t have them at the warehouse for the kids to order yet,” he said. “Some of them would just delay due to volume - more kids ordered the books than they thought.” “Sometimes, things get lost in the mail, too,” he added. “We
do our best to get that rectified as quickly as possible, though.” Another recurring complaint was technological issues with the bookstore website. Psychology major Anjanique Santos said a system error caused her class to purchase unnecessary materials. “One of my classes said that we needed eight books, but the FSU bookstore had a glitch in their system, and we apparently didn’t need any of the books for that class. [It] led to a long issue with returning the books,” she said. Several students had concerns about incorrect labeling on the website. Sophomore English major Roman Sisson said books and their corresponding reading guides often have identical titles on the bookstore site. “So you accidentally buy a guide to reading the book instead of the thing you actually wanted.” See BOOKSTORE Page 4
Beacon award recipients announced
News
The Rev. Nontombi Tutu speaks on higher education By Francisco Omar Fernandez Rodriguez
Arts & Features Editor
By Sarah Daponde Asst. Arts & Features Editor The Division of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement (DICE) hosted the third annual MLK Commemoration Lecture and Beacon Awards on Jan. 29. Four recipients were chosen out of nine nominees for the Beacon Awards. Jerome Burke, director of the CIE, and the Beacon Awards Committee announced the winners. “The Beacon Awards are given to members of the FSU com-
munity who have gone above and beyond their responsibilities to make noteworthy contributions to help advance inclusive excellence at FSU,” said Burke. The Beacon Award winners are senior Laila Jenkins, president of the Black Student Union; Andrew Frimpong, community resource officer; Ishara Mills-Henry, associate professor of biochemistry, chemistry, and food science; and Cara Pina, associate professor of biology. Jenkins said, “Sometimes you have to be your own support system and that has to be enough. You can’t ever let yourself give up.”
Pina said, “Equity and inclusion on our campus are really important to me. … One of the reasons I work at Framingham State is because I’m really passionate about ensuring that our first-gen students, our students of color, our low-income students - all of whom didn’t always get a chance to go to college - have a great college experience.” This year the keynote speaker was the Rev. Nontombi Tutu, daughter of the late South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
See BEACON Page 12
GPI pg. 2 SGA pg. 3
OP/ED 100 YEARS pg. 7 FARMING pg.7
Sports MEN’S BASKETBALL pg. 9 WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY pg. 10
Arts & Features ARCHIVES pg. 11 GRAMMYS pg. 14 INSIDE: OP/ED 6 • SPORTS 9 • ART & FEATURES 11