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Volume 72, Issue 48,
Thursday, October 26, 2006
News As deadline nears, pressure mounts Less than one-third of profs have turned in book orders for spring by AMNA KHALIQUE and NADA ELSAYED
The deadline for faculty to turn in textbook orders to the UH bookstore is Friday, and as of Wednesday, only 32 percent had submitted theirs despite efforts by University organizations to encourage faculty to turn orders in on time. The Student Government Association and the Faculty Senate met earlier this month to tackle the issue of late orders, each passing resolutions encouraging professors to meet textbook deadlines. "If (professors) turn their orders in on time, textbooks will be cheaper by 20 to 30 percent across the board," David Rosen, the vice president of SGA, said. The resolutions passed by SGA and the Faculty Senate are expected to begin affecting textbook prices for students in the Fall 2007 semester. The textbook-order deadline has a two-part goal. The students benefit from a higher buyback rate if the bookstore has been informed ahead of time whether or not a certain book will be used in the next semester, and the bookstore will be able to place orders for more used textbooks. According to bookstore policy, students with textbooks that will continue to be used in future classes can get back up to 50 percent of the textbook price during buyback. "Faculty is just as worried as the students about textbooks, obviously not for the same reasons, but nonetheless," Steven Craig, president of the Faculty Senate, said. E-mail memos from both the Senate and the bookstore have been sent out to professors to remind them of the deadline. Craig said the buyback rate affects only a number of students each semester because most of the classes are offered only once a year. Buyback rates are higher for the classes that are offered in consecutive semesters and use the same books. "The book-order deadline from the bookstore is arbitrary and comes in too early into the semester," Craig said. The deadline, which is smack in the middle of the semester, doesn't work for a lot of professors since they are busy with the classes they are currently teaching, he said. "The bookstore should move their deadline forward since they can process the later orders in time, too. This way (the bookstore) will get a better response from the faculty," he said. According to James Burch, the textbook manager at the bookstore, missed deadlines means less money for students. "If we do not know which book the professors are using the next semester, then we offer the wholesale price of the book based on the national market (during buyback), which is approximately 10 to 20 percent (of its value)," he said. Biology junior Rachel Lee, who mostly orders her books online, said she would prefer to buy her books from the bookstore on campus. "If the bookstore offered more used books and lower prices I would definitely buy from them because it is quicker and more convenient than ordering books online," she said. Send comments to dcnews@mail.uh.edu |
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