Wednesday,
Oct. 15, 1997
New programs establish ELC as official department
Laura Armstrong
StaffWriter
The goal of the Environmental
Learning Center (ELC) is to “let people
know that we’re there,” said John
LeCavalier, Executive director of the
ELC.
New classes like urban watershed
management and cooperative work ex
perience are available for students on
the campus. The turnout for the new
classes, which are offered both fall and
spring terms, was relatively small.
The ELC is initiating several new
programs to educate the children and
adults of the community. The educa
tion programs are broken up into three
basic areas. The first is for grades K-
12, the second is for professionals and
technological experts and thirdly the
program aims at general community
education.
Local schools like Park Place El
ementary and Oregon City High
School's freshman campus are in
volved in these hands-on programs.
The students at the freshman campus
will learn how to collect data from
Newell Creek. “You’re guaranteed
hands-on get dirty activities,” said
LeCavalier. The ELC comes to the
participating schools and prepares the
students for the tours which will take
place at the actual college campus.
Support from Clackamas has made
the ELC an official department of the
college. The Executive Director posi
tion is funded by the college.
TIMOTHY BELL / Clackamas Print
Rusty Grove and son Justin enjoy ELC's lush scenery.
Bookstore prices cheaper
than many students think
Jeremy Stallwood
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Staff Writer_______________ ___________________________
The Clackamas campus bookstore has been the source of
much controversy over the years. Most students agree that
the bookstore overcharges for their books. That is not the
case. In fact, their very mission statement is "to provide the
college community with educational materials in a timely
manner at reasonable prices..."
There is more than just a statement to base this fact on.
Here are some examples from the bookstore here at
Clackamas: Geography: Realms,Regions, and Concepts, a
required text, costs $64.95, and the price from the supplier,
Amazon, states their price at $76.49. Taber's Cyclopedic
Medical Dictionary, Volume 18, is priced at $34.25, while
the same book costs $39.95 at Powell’s. Beginning Alge
bra, Fourth Edition, is priced at $51.95 here, while the list
price from Amazon was $60.
Douglas M. Shannon, director of the campus bookstore,
explains that the bookstore is a part of the college, but is
self supporting. They use a 23% mark-up on their books,
which has remained consistently at 23% for more than 10
years. Most college bookstores are self supporting and only
maintain the mark-up to remain so.
“We are not excessive in our mark-up,” says Shannon.
He claims that the campus’ bookstore is competitive with
Portland and Mt. Hood community colleges.
Still, students complain that their texts cost too much.
“Books are expensive,” said Shannon. When asked why,
he explained simply that they must buy at the supplier’s
price, and again the 23% mark-up is to stay self supporting.
So why are they so expensive at the supplier’s end?
A statistical study conducted in 1990-1991 by the Asso
ciation of American Publishers and the National Associa
tion of College Stores, illustrates where each textbook dol
lar goes.
The largest portion, 37.3 cents on the dollar, goes to pay
for the publisher’s paper, printing, and editing services.
Manufacturing costs include storage, record keeping, bill
ing, publishers’ offices, and employees salaries and ben
efit. 13.9 cents goes to college store personnel, which are
the store employees’ salaries and benefits.
Publishers' marketing costs accounts for 12.9 cents. This
would pay for advertising, professors’ free copies and pub
lishers’ field staff.
Publishers’ and authors’ tax takes 9.7cents. Federal, state
and local taxes, excluding sales tax, are paid by the author
and the publisher; 7.6 cents goes to the publishers’ income,
7.5 cents for the authors’ income, both after taxes.
The last three portions of the textbook dollar are spent:
5.5 cents for college store operation, 3.9 cents for college
store income, and 1.7 cents to cover college store freight
expenses.
Shannon also explains that part of the uproar concerning
book costs stems from the fact that the student, kindergar
ten through senior year, has never been faced with buying
books for education. When entering college, tuition and
buying books for classes gives a terrible shock to the pock
etbook.
There is some cause for concern though. Richard Bach’s Illu
sions has a cover price of $5.99, but the campus bookstore is
charging $6.50. Why is that?
Shannon explains that sometimes the publisher will send old
stock they want to get rid of, but will charge the new-book price.
He also adds that the difference in price should be caught in the
stockroom and usually a bar code charging the book’s actual cover
price is put on. On the shelf, a book with a cover price of $ 14 was
found to cost $19.95 for the student Shannon pulled those, and
all the copies of Illusions will be re-coded.
The results of the Print’s investigation suggest that the campus
bookstore should be credited for their efforts to keep the book
costs as competitive as possible.