Nearly 10% of incoming students are from homes making under $30,000 a year. The need is real. Help the Libraries meet that need.
A spotlight on the Libraries’ Student Resource Fund
March 18, 2022
Financial insecurity is a reality for NC State students. You might have budgeted enough for the tuition bill, but you still have to pay for other essentials like your textbooks, your laptop, your internet access, and other equipment for your class assignments like cameras and software. It adds up fast at NC State, where nearly 10% of incoming students come from homes with combined incomes under $30,000.
The Libraries’ Student Resources Fund (SRF) meets those needs head-on, supporting our technology- and textbook-lending programs to promote more affordable education. Students can use Libraries' laptops, chargers, WiFi hotspots, textbooks, and other resources—all for free—to reduce barriers to their success, including financial insecurity.
Hear students speak about how our Student Resources Fund has helped them succeed in this video testimonial.
The W. Trent Ragland, Jr. Foundation awarded a $20,000 grant to the Libraries SRF to support long-term technology lending services and textbook programs. The fund proved to be a godsend during the pandemic, when the move to remote instruction made laptop, wifi, and remote access to textbooks absolutely essential. As NC State returned to campus, the Ragland grant supported students continuing their studies after having had to drop out of NC State due to the economic impact of COVID-19. Through the SRF, the Libraries partnered with the Office of Financial Aid to provide direct textbook and laptop scholarships to students eligible for Pack Promise, a program that guarantees 100% of eligible financial aid to high-need students.
For the Summer 2021 semester, SRF support through the Ragland grant helped 15 students purchase 58 textbooks, and four students received laptops. Students received, on average, $332 of assistance for the summer semester, through the program.
The SRF has also helped College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS) provide tools and resources to their Impact Scholars, exemplifying how the Libraries can work with colleges to support their needs-based scholarship students. SRF dollars helped six Impact Scholars purchase 63 textbooks for the Fall and Spring 2021 semesters, and three students took our long-term laptop loans, bringing the average spent per student to over $550.
For many students, the SRF was a difference maker. Diana Lokshin, a senior studying Horticultural Science, borrowed a laptop long-term. “The library was able to rent out a MacBook which was already connected with the NC State System,” she says. “So it's really easy to have my classes, to have my email, to have everything already on the laptop. This semester I had a random medical emergency. [With free Libraries resources] I was able to use my money for paying the rent and being able to afford those bills without having me stressed out, not having to make those decisions and sacrifices.”
“Being able to donate right now to the Student Resource Fund would be a really direct and quick way to affect students and to help them, to give them access to so many resources and to give them a leg up within the university.”
For other students, the SRF simply enabled them to do their classwork. Working in a media-rich field like Communications requires access to expensive recording and editing technologies that the Libraries offers for free.
“I've used Libraries technology to access software for my undergraduate research experience,” says Starr Gibens, a senior studying Communications and Political Science. “And I’ve also checked out and scanned textbooks. And I've also borrowed library equipment to record my ‘Beyond the Bell Tower’ podcast. There's so much more that goes on through the Libraries and through the resources that they have.”
“I didn't have any of the resources that the Communications department uses for my classes to do a video project,” says Riki Dows, a senior graduating in Communications and Arts Studies. “I actually went to the Libraries to get most of the tools that I needed to get that project done.”
“If you're thinking about investing in the Student Resource Fund, then you're definitely going to help students out right now because the only method students have of learning is with technology.”