ONONDAGA — Onondaga Community College (OCC) this fall is offering a new program that reduces the price of textbooks and a laptop computer for its students with a bundled-pricing model.

OCC on March 27 announced its partnership with Barnes & Noble College on the three-year program. 

New York City–based Barnes & Noble College — which is part of Basking Ridge, New Jersey–based Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE: BNED) — operates the OCC campus bookstore.

The “Box of Books” program will provide students with “flat-rate, predictable pricing” for textbooks and a lower cost Chromebook computer, OCC said in a news release. The program is formally called “First Day Complete,” promising to offer “first-day-of-class access to affordable, high-quality course materials for all courses,” per the release.

“We’ve heard from students over the course of several years with the escalating cost of textbooks [and] online computer access codes … causing a real struggle,” Casey Crabill, president of Onondaga Community College, said during a March 27 news conference on the college’s campus. “Students have been unable to have the funds necessary to buy the materials required to participate in schools.”

Last year, fewer than half of the students at OCC were able to afford the books and access codes necessary, creating a “playing field that isn’t level,” Crabill contended.

Students paid an average cost of nearly $82 for each textbook during 2018, for a total average cost of $615 per semester, the college said. 

Under the “Box of Books” program, students will pay $21.50 per credit hour or $64.50 for each required textbook. The cost of textbooks for one semester will total $322.50. The program also allows students to purchase a Chromebook for $250, the school added.

Crabill described the talks with Barnes & Noble College as a negotiation with a company that understands that its business model “needs to evolve into current realities for students.”

“I think they’ve probably taken on some risk with us and I think they’ll be watching it as closely as we will,” said Crabill.

“This inclusive access model will support affordability, accessibility and achievement for the Onondaga campus community, by providing all course materials conveniently delivered as a bundle for students on or before the first day of class,” Paul Maloney, VP of stores at Barnes & Noble College, said in the school’s release.

OCC said it is the first public college in the U.S. to join this Box of Books program.

Salina–based engineering firm Barton & Loguidice, D.P.C. (B&L) has acquired a Baltimore, Maryland–area firm that will boost the local company’s work in the geosciences field in the Mid-Atlantic region.

The deal closed Feb. 22, John Brusa, Jr., president and CEO of Barton & Loguidice, says in a March 29 phone interview with CNYBJ. The transaction gives the firm a second office in Maryland.

Barton & Loguidice didn’t release any financial terms of its acquisition, including price.

B&L has acquired Eldersburg, Maryland–based Advanced Land and Water, Inc. (ALWI). It is a nine-person firm specializing in hydrogeological and environmental consulting, including expertise with complex water supply, discharge and contamination issues for clients throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. B&L already has an office in Lanham, Maryland.

ALWI’s employees will help B&L increase its efforts in the geosciences field with a focus on drilling and environmental work.

“They’re geologists, hydrogeologists … geologists focused on water,” says Brusa.

With this acquisition, B&L can now offer ALWI’s expertise in environmental sciences, hydrogeology, geographic information systems (GIS), and global-positioning systems (GPS) technology to its clients. At the same time, B&L brings its “core areas of expertise to clients in a larger geographic footprint” in the Mid-Atlantic region, the firm said in a news release.

B&L was familiar with the Baltimore–area firm through different professional organizations in which both companies are members. Brusa says the acquisition talks took place over more than one year. 

“We have [worked] with them … on projects and it grew into further discussions, which eventually led to the acquisition,” says Brusa.

Barton & Loguidice is an engineering, planning, environmental and landscape architecture firm that employs more than 280 people throughout the Northeast in offices in New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

All nine employees of ALWI have joined the B&L staff and continue to operate from their existing location. Its website now identifies the firm as “a Barton & Loguidice company.” 

“We’ll eventually transition away [from the ALWI name] over time,” says Brusa.

Mark Eisner, founder of ALWI, is joining B&L as a VP in the firm’s environmental practice area and will serve as branch manager of the Baltimore–area office.

“I’m proud to bring the firm’s more than 20 years of experience and expertise to Barton & Loguidice,” Eisner said in the B&L release. “This opportunity allows for the team to continue to experience professional growth and explore new work opportunities, as well as provide our clientele with even more resources to service their needs. Joining the B&L team was a natural fit for us.”

B&L is also expanding in ALWI’s building, adding another 800 square feet as the firm anticipates adding three or four employees to that office, according to Brusa.