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.
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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.
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