By Bella Bozied

When making your way to your next class, attending office hours, or simply getting lost in the labyrinth design of the Williams Building, look for the handful of green cardboard boxes scattered throughout the higher floors. The English Honors Society Sigma Tau Delta provides those bins to the Florida State University community for book donations.

FSU’s chapter of the society, Rho Epsilon, has been serving its mission to spread literacy by working with its national partner, Better World Books. Beginning in Spring 2022, the book drive supplies a way for students to give back by collecting any kind of gently used or unwanted books.

Better World Books works on projects such as reusing and recycling books. The organization also takes books that are too damaged, sells them, and uses those funds to better supply libraries in need, says FSU English-Literature, Media, and Culture doctoral candidate Kristy Cherry-Randle, who has been a member of Sigma Tau Delta-Rho Epsilon since 2019.

“It kind of hurts my feelings to see books in dumpsters, when I know that there are people out there that could use a book. Right? Use that experience of having a tangible artifact,” she says.

Once she joined Sigma Tau Delta, Cherry-Randle wasted no time in becoming an integral representative, holding the position of member at large, jumping straight to the role of chapter president, and now residing as a graduate advisor to the group. During her entire time within the program, she has in some way been drawing up the plans for this project.

“Here at FSU, specifically in our department, it’s ingrained in English majors to promote this love of reading,” says Cherry-Randle, whose doctoral specialty area is early American literature focusing on first contact narratives. “To promote the picking up the tangible object and interacting with it in some way.”

Rho Epsilon’s connection and work through Better World Books uses its platforms, ideas, and members to support and spread literacy in the community. Cherry-Randle believes the drive’s objective extends beyond the English department and FSU, and that’s why this chapter is involved.

As an organization, Sigma Tau Delta’s ideal vision is to transform the world, “with words.” The honors society works to bring English departments and university communities together for a greater good.

The main goal of “helping people read, and enhancing their lives through books, with these second lives of books, even if they're not being bought,” Cherry-Randle says, is what she and other chapter members hope people remember when they spot a book bin.

Sigma Tau Delta was founded in 1922 and is recognized internationally for its efforts in truth, sincerity, fellowship, and, most notably, promoting literacy. FSU’s chapter Rho Epsilon was established in 1950 and serves today as a collaborative space for undergraduate and graduate students to come together, forming mentorships and providing the students with a multitude of opportunities in various capacities.

The current book drive pushes the narrative of the potential universal lifestyle of books, based solely on what the owner decides for its future. English-Creative Writing doctoral candidate Gwen Niekamp, current president of Rho Epsilon, has delved into the research of a book’s lifestyle—the book drive afterlife, you could say.

“It gives books a second or third or fourth life, and in that way it's a sustainable program, [as Better World Books] accepts books that are gently used,” she says. The drive is, “promoting learning and curiosity among multiple age ranges and education levels and by having that, it’s fostering that passion across...a discourse community,” Niekamp adds.

She highlights how initiatives like this captivate her, drawing her in further to advance her leadership roles within Rho Epsilon. She is grateful for her experiences with the chapter as a whole as well as the book drive process.

The initiative will continue as long as the students of the Rho Epsilon chapter steer the drive, with the chapter’s undergraduate members taking a larger role in fostering the program.

“I’m an English education major, so education, specifically literacy, is very important to me,” says Hannah Scheifele, a sophomore who has been a member of the honors society since the Fall 2022 semester.

She says the idea of people not having access to education through a lack of resources breaks her heart. Focusing on the importance of how she and her involvement in Rho Epsilon can help those in need alleviates those emotions.

“Books never expire, which is something so special about them; they’re designed to be passed down,” Scheifele says enthusiastically.

She adds that the organization's partnership with Better World Books has enlightened her, and she is even more excited to become further involved through her remaining years at FSU. Chapter members, in any way they are involved with the book drive project, all say they hope students will support this effort and work to give children an understanding of the literary world.

To donate to the Sigma Tau Delta Book Drive, simply bring in any type of gently used book (textbooks, novels, etc.) to any of the green bins on the second, third, and fourth floors of the Williams Building. Check for updates on Sigma Tau Delta-Rho Epsilon's Instagram account.

Bella Bozied is a double major in English-Editing, Writing, and Media as well as information, communication, and technology.

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