6 The Clackamas Print
Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010
Books empty pockets, fill min
By Joshua Baird
Arts & Culture Editor
One question is asked more than anything in the
college hallways: “Why are my books so expen
sive?”
In the past, students would buy a textbook and if
it was in good enough condition they would sell it
back to the bookstore at the end of the term, losing
money in the process. However, even $20 is good
for most students when it means the difference
between dinner and going without.
These days, however, this is not as easy as it
once was. The problem comes in the form of book
publishers packaging books with online pass codes
required for a number of classes on campus, for
example business computing, accounting and sci
ence classes. The bookstore cannot buy these books
back once the wrapper is removed.
“The publishers want to sell the books new with
access codes, and when they sell the book with an
access code they will add ten dollars to the cost
for the access code when you buy the new book,”
said Carol DeSau, the manager of the bookstore at
Clackamas Community College’s campus.
“If you buy the access code separately, they jack
the price way up and it, a lot of times, makes it more
expensive for a student to buy a used textbook with
a separate access code than to buy the package from
the publisher.”
Most students aren’t aware of the new style of
books available at the bookstore in the form of
loose leaf pages in a three-ring binder called cus
tomized textbooks. These books cannot be bought
back either.
“I think perhaps the dilemma that I see in custom
ized books is the inability to sell back. That’s not
because of us,” said Kelly Brennan, speech instruc
tor and contributor to “The Power of Words: Public
Speaking.”
According to Brennan, the reason for using this
new style of book is actually to keep the cost down
from what the complete textbook costs.
“The main concern was cost and the lack of being
able to sell them back. We find that with most cus
tom books, even though you can’t sell them back,
they tend to be a little bit cheaper. So when you do
all of the calculations it ends up being about the
same,” said Brennan.
When books are sold brand new, the bookstore
receives a portion of the profit, accounting for
approximately 25 percent of which they use to pay
shipping, salaries for employees, custodial services
and reimbursing the college for the cost of electric
ity.
The other 75 percent is received by the publisher
who then goes about paying the authors and co
authors of the textbook. This is not to say that the
75 percent received goes to the author.
Instead this is split up among several areas of the
publishing world, everything from printing prices
to paying the academics that test out the various
chapters of each book to ensure that all of the data
is correct and all of the answers to problems and
exercises are correct. In the case of anatomy and
physiology texts, the authors have to pay for cadav
ers for illustrations.
So after paying for printing costs, models, dum
mies, academics and photography, the share that the
authors receive is fairly miniscule. What happens to
the royalties for books in required classes that are
written by instructors on campus?
This brings up a matter of ethics. Is it ethical
for the author to receive money for a book that he
wrote and then requires for his required courses to
us'e? According to math instructor Stefan Barrato, it
is not. Barrato is the co-author of “Elementary and
Intermediate Algebra,” which he wrote with Don
Hutchison. They donate all of the royalties from
books sold at CCC to the foundation to avoid a con
flict of interest.
According to Brennan, who co-authored a cus
tomized book by entering pertinent information
arid his PowerPoints into a set of pre-existing text,
indicated that all royalties are being exchanged for a
two gigabyte USB drive that comes packaged in the
public speaking textbook from the publisher. The
USB drive is a required asset for his classroom.
Students don’t always have to buy the book, in
some cases rentals are available at the bookstore, as
long as the books aren’t damaged, you do m
to pay the full price of the book at the end
term. The library also has several copies I
textbooks on reserve, though in the case I
Power of Words,” very few of them are q
out.
So who is the bad guy here? The auth
writes the book and uses his royalties to ben
student body? Or the bookstore who, thougll
by the college, acts as a separate entity? Or
publishers who pay for the whole process fra
ing to printing?
Unfortunately nobody is to blame for t
cost of textbooks; this isn’t a novel that 3
$7.99 at Fred Meyer and sells a million copi
is your education, so which would you p
cheap textbook or a higher standard of eduq
“We try to find the best textbooks, and w
pens, in my opinion, was they raised the p
become as they are. That makes us have tq
find a book that may be a little cheaper to he,
those costs down. The problem is that we n
lessening the quality of the books now, (b
going to be at the cost of the student’s ed|
So that is the dilemma that we are findin
Brennan.
George Craig C/ncM
Students buy textbooks for their classes for Fall term. Students’ wallets are being strained as boo
lishers release new editions and increased costs for buying access codes separate from the packad
21+: Celebrate the new school term with bacon infused vod
By Joshua Baird
Arts & Culture Editor
Welcome to “21+”; a column for you, the
drinking class, as Oscar Wilde would call you.
We will be discussing bar reviews, beer, wine,
liquor and other aspects of being of age.
The last time I went to a liquor store, I found
that there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of
different companies making new and creative
products. Flavored gin, rum, tequila, even whis
key are available on toe market at a surprising
rate. One such product that has possibly toe
most variance is vodka.
Vodka is one of toe first of toe five main
spirits most people go for when they reach their
21st birthday, so it is no surprise that vodka
companies have begun to market so many new
flavors to toe public. Everything from citrus
flavoring to acai berry to toe most surprising of
all, bacon flavored vodka.
With hundreds of thousands of cocktail reci
pes available both in books and on toe Internet,
one has to wonder what kind of drink one would
make with bacon flavored vodka. In my pursuit
of a perfect bacon cocktail, I had to go no further
than toe homepage for Bakon Vodka.
Bakon Vodka has an aroma similar to imita
tion bacon bits that can be found in just about
every salad bar.
I felt that in order to get toe overall effect of
this interesting concoction, I should try it straight
toe first time. While it did have an undertone of
peppered bacon, the majority of toe flavor was
that smooth and slightly sweet flavor that can be
expected ftbm good potato vodka.
Bakon’s website, www.bakonvodka.com,
has compiled a list of 13 different cocktails
and one recipe for a “Bakon Vodka Marinated
Steak.” Included in this list are a “Bakon
Chocolate Martini” and a “Prosciutto Wrapped
Melon Shot”
These two strange cocktails went head to
head in a taste test. In my years as a bartender,
I have come across a number of recipes that
sounded strange, even terrible, yet they turned
out to be a unique and sometimes wonderful
experience.
The melon shot coming from two very dif
ferent gravity alcohols had to be poured just right
in order to get that fantastic appearance found
in layered shots, first by adding toe Midori, a
Japanese melon liqueur, and then layering toe
vodka on top to make toe fantastic visual.
The flavor was both sweet and savory and
provided an interesting overall taste. It legiti
mately tasted like the name indicates. Whether
that is a good thing or not is up to you. I person
ally enjoy that combination.
After toe shot of fruit and Bakon, I decided
it is now time to experiment with toe Bakon
Chocolate Martinix I have never been more
afraid of -a cocktail in my life. The only thing
I kept thinking was, “If I dial 911 and I’m too
busy lurching to talk, will they be able to find
me from my cell signal?”
Surprisingly, toe cocktail didn’t taste half
bad. The chocolate flavor was a bit weak so I
felt inclined to add a bit of chocolate sauce that I
keep in my desk drawer for just such emergen
cies. Okay, so maybe it was in toe refrigerator
not toe drawer, but it saved my “Bakon” none
toe less.
While this is not toe type of thing I will
probably ever order in a bar for fear of being
ostracized, unless I have had a few already and
toe “need food” region of my brain takes-over,
I have to say that all in all this is a pretty versa
tile and enjoyable drink. People real!
bacon on or in anything these days. I
Disclaimer: The Clackamas Proqd
support underage drinking of any kij
responsibly.
f----------------------------------
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Joshua Baird CindO
This chocolate and bacon vodka ma
is the perfect mix of sweet and ■