The recent opening of Barnes and Noble's "pop-up store" on Yeshiva's uptown campus infused many students with cautious optimism. After the sudden closure of Posmans Collegiate Bookstore this past summer, the agreement reached between Barnes and Noble and Yeshiva seemed a workable alternative. Under its provisions, the "pop-up" store, located on the corner of 186th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, would furnish Yeshiva students, during limited business hours, with the books required for their coursework.

However, despite students' hopes that the nationally recognized chain would provide Yeshiva's uptown community with an organized, professional retailing outlet in which to purchase supplies, campus sentiment seems to indicate that most students are disappointed with the way the "pop-up" plan has been implemented.

Problems, both old and new, have plagued the new store throughout its first few weeks of operation. One prevalent student complaint is that the "pop-up" store does not stock many of the books required for Yeshiva courses. "Now I have to run around the city looking for the books I need for class," complained Yeshiva College Sophomore Zalman Abramchick. "Students shouldn't have to worry about these things."

Another all-too-familiar complaint, which perennially maddened Yeshiva students when Posmans occupied the site of the current Barnes and Noble store, is that the store's tiny property simply cannot adequately serve Yeshiva's student body. Yeshiva College junior Brian Schlusselberg, when asked for his impressions of the new bookstore, claimed he could not respond to questions because he "could not get in the door."

One new quirk has further exacerbated student concern: the "pop-up" store's irregular hours of operation. According to one student, "Every time I go to buy a book, it's closed." Syms sophomore Jonah Sobin added, "I cannot find any time of the day when I can go in quickly...I don't have all day to wait around for one or two books."

Bobby Korman, general manager of Manhattan's main Barnes and Noble university bookstore, however, has praised the small store as a relative success. At the start of the semester, Korman pointed out, the store stocked only seventy to seventy five percent of the required course books. "Now," she claimed, "we have close to ninety percent."

Some students have expressed some level of agreement with Kroman's assessment, but they seemed more impressed by the way that Barnes and Noble organized the "pop-up" store on such short notice than they were by the outlet's actual operations. Yonatan Wiesen, acknowledging the difficulties that Barnes and Noble had to deal with, exclaimed, "the store is awesome!" Under the circumstances, he explained, the "pop-up" store offers students a relatively easy way to purchase needed books.

Overall, however, student sentiment regarding the latest reincarnation of Yeshiva's bookstore remains decidedly negative. But some students seem to think that blaming Barnes and Noble for the problem is not exactly fair. According to one student leader, "It's quite clear who is to blame for the bookstore situation. When the administration waits until the last minute to procure an on-campus vendor of school books, what else should we expect?"

It remains to be seen whether, by next semester, the store will be more prepared to handle the demands of the nearly 1300 uptown undergraduates in Yeshiva College and Sy Syms. But until then, as YC senior Aryeh Aristan put it, "Barnes and Noble may as well have 'popped up' somewhere in New Jersey; real estate is cheaper there, and the store would have the same number of satisfied customers.