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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 2000)
Competition levels textbook prices ■ Students may think they’re getting soaked by the University Bookstore, but prices are comparable By Joel Kuhnau for the Emerald It’s not hard to see how students could get sticker shock from buying new textbooks at the University Bookstore. “Introduction to Mineralogy" runs $63, “Mathematics in Life, Society, and the World” will set you back $77.40, and for “Molecular Cell Biol ogy,” prepare to hand over $82.80. With prices like these, the Book store must be making money hand over fist, right? Not exactly. When it comes to coursebooks, the bookstore simply buys the books chosen by professors and then marks them up — new books at 25 percent. Used books sell at 75 percent of the new-book price. Then at the cash register, the Bookstore deducts 10 percent from the shelf price for stu dents, as well as faculty and staff. Whatever the Bookstore makes on sales goes to cover the cost of getting books on the shelves and expenses such as personnel and shipping, said Gina Murray, the Bookstore’s faculty and publisher liaison. Murray said Azle Malinao-Alvarez Emerald The University Bookstore stocks the books professors order, then discounts their 25 per cent markup by 10 for students, faculty and staff. that as “the point of contact,” she un derstands how students can become frustrated with the Bookstore. “We’re the ones selling them the really expensive books,” she said of students’ perceptions. “So natural ly the first reaction is going to be with our department.” Murray said that the Bookstore does everything it can to get books at the lowest possible prices by shop ping around among wholesalers, distributors and publishers for the best deals. She said the Bookstore shops among six used book whole salers to try to “get as many used books as possible” for students. The persuasiveness of used books has a “definite core impact” on the price of new books, said Stephen Hochheiser, director of Turn to Textbooks, page 20A Breslow continued from page 6A sweatshop labor — those issues are the new student movement. Stu dents all over the country are fight ing for this, and we need to be there with them, because there’s nothing more important to being a student than making sure that you get an un biased education. Q: Why should students pay any attention to student government? A: Because we’re doing things that drastically affect their educa tion. I mean, we’re in control of $7.5 million. That’s a lot of money. This isn’t high school student govern ment, where you plan a pep assem bly and a dance. This is $7.5 million in student money that we have to protect. We need to make sure we’re using it to the best advantage, so that students maintain some sort of au tonomy. Q: What plans do you have to keep students entertained and in terested throughout the year? A: We have a couple of ideas. One idea is an Animal House ap preciation week, like re-creating the food fight scene in the Fishbowl. Fun stuff like that that gets the nor mal student involved, shows what students can do, organizing fun events ... whatever we can do to balance the social aspects of stu dent government with the political aspects. And mix them together — bring in a cool band here in the EMU Amphitheater, and after the band plays, we’ll have a packed house, and we’ll bring in some po litical candidates to debate the is sues. Q: How will you make yourself accessible to students? A: Basically I’ll be spending a lot of time around the office. [The ASUO staff will] be out and around, showing up to events. That’s part of our plan, is to be out there, accessible, and visible to all students so that they feel comfort able coming to see us if they have a problem, or when we come recruit ing volunteers or interns, they’ll know we’re cool kids. www.eweb.org m-m The Power is in Your Hands. E WEB aut Wet & 'V> rc* Whether you're back from summer vacation or just starting at the UO, its quick and easy to start your electric and water service on the web at www.eweb.org, or by calling 484-6016. *°Ur irtSr to Eugene! Welcome back * Reqist»*a+ioK\ S+aH-s * September 20tK at 10:00am For more information or to have our brochure mailed to you call: 346-4361 FALL VPCRAFT CENTER Bring in your old games for cash or trade BRING IN THIS AD for *5.00 off purchase of used video games (minimum920 purchase) Not valid with any other offer. Expires 11-15-00 Check out our new video gaming chair www.videogamingchair.com Largest distributor of used games anywhere 1508 Coburg Rd. 2880 Willamette Ferry Street Bridge 683-5598 South Eugene 302-3082 You’re buying lyour books f^ Do those online-only booksellers really have the books you need at super-low prices? If you want the real deal on textbooks, shop the store you can trust: Your University of Oregon Bookstore. The University of Oregon Bookstore is a not-for-profit organization owned by UO students, faculty and staff. All books are 10% off EVERYDAY for current UO students, faculty and staff. UNIVERSITY OF OREGON BOOKSTORE Open Daily M-F 7:45-6 / Sat 10-6 / Sun 12-6 on the corner of 13th & Kincaid. www.Jt3yitwlJ.toa YOUR place for new;, clarified;, merraje board;, reader; poll;, ODE archive; and more...
