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UNIVERSITY NEWS UMKC’s Independent Student Newspaper
FACULTY DROPS THE BALL
Volume 81, Issue 1
Monday August 19, 2013
Late book orders cost students time and money
Roze Brooks
Co-Editor-In-Chief
New and returning students may feel a familiar frustration entering the bookstore this semester. Greeted with empty shelves and not having the option of purchasing used textbooks may have students thinking twice about hashing out money at the UMKC bookstore. However, while many students’ first reaction will be to blame the bookstore, the real fault dates back to April 2013. Each semester, UMKC professors and lecturers are asked to submit their textbook orders on April 15 for the summer and fall semesters and Oct. 15 for the spring semester. According to Pete Eisentrager, textbook manager of the UMKC bookstore, these deadlines are being constantly neglected. “Faculty really hold the key to us reducing textbook prices,” he said. “Without them turning in textbook orders, it has a negative effect.” Of the approximately 2500 title orders the bookstore has processed, only 24 percent were submitted before the April deadline. The current figures are worse than Eisentrager’s initial prediction, statistics that he deemed disgusting but can be fixed through grassroots efforts. At least 64 orders, or three percent, have been submitted since Aug. 12, a week before the start of classes. Chronic ignorance of priority deadlines starts a cycle of costly letdowns for all parties included. Students are unable to sell back books during buyback periods at the end of each semester because the bookstore hasn’t been notified on time which books will be needed for
the following semester. “We want our first source to be the students,” Eisentrager said. “ That’s why we ask for orders a few weeks in advance to be able to maximize the number of books we can buyback during buyback periods.” Late order submissions gives the bookstore minimal time to source materials for the lowest cost, often resulting in purchase of brand new copies directly from the publishers. This costs the bookstore and inadvertently the students and university substantial dollar figures annually. In addition to financial concerns, last-minute orders also put the university at risk legally. In 2008, the Higher Education Opportunity Act was passed into federal law. Included in this piece of legislation was a textbook information provision. The essential requirements of the provision are “To the maximum extent practicable, each institution of higher education receiving Federal financial assistance shall—“Disclose, on the institution’s internet course schedule and in a manner of the institution’s choosing, the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) and retail price information of required and recommended college textbooks and supplemental materials for each course listed in the institution’s course schedule used for preregistration and registration purposes.” The intent is to ensure students have access to course materials at the cheapest cost to them and that all parties involved are working towards decreasing prices of textbooks.
Cartoon by Joey Hill
Empty shelves lead to student disappointment at the UMKC bookstore.
“We understand every student is not going to buy textbooks here, but not even being able to provide that info puts students in a bind.,” Eisentrager said. “We don’t know about it and it looks bad for us and violates the national legislation” Eisentrager said this has been a worsening issue for years and listless efforts to rectify missed deadlines have been exhausted. He has approached the faculty senate, notified administrators and worked with SGA sporadically throughout his time at UMKC-- with reverse effects. “We’re actually going backwards,” he said. “It’s affecting some of these key classes that have the highest enrollment.” The UM System took over operations of its bookstores in 2006. Since the transition, the UMKC Student Government Association (SGA) has passed two resolutions pertaining to textbook orders. The concern stated in the 2007 resolution was a 15 percent book order submission for the winter semester at or before deadline. SGA voted in approval of strongly encouraging faculty members to submit textbook orders to the UMKC bookstore by priority deadline. Another resolution passed in 2011 resolving that SGA supports adoption of a university-wide policy which requires instructors, faculty and staff to submit needed materials by the specified date. “What it really comes down to is there has got to be a university driven policy,” Eisentrager said. Unfortunately that policy has not been adopted even after the 2011
Photo by Roze Brooks
resolution. The incoming SGA board, instructors of approaching deadlines. RooServe, ran on a platform that “It can be changed. It’s simple. included a mission for reducing It’s proven on campuses all over the price of textbooks. Its intended the nation, it just requires a buy in,” approach while campaigning Eisentrager said. “I’ll take an order included working with other student written on a napkin if we have to, as government associations in the UM long as I get it on time.” System to push for state legislation to eliminate the tax on textbooks. After rbrooks@unews.com witnessing firsthand the adverse effects of late orders, SGA president Benjamin Campero is determined to add this to the forefront of the 2013 executive board’s action plan. “We’re going to act on this,” Campero said. “If other universities can do it, we can do it.” The bookstore will be launching a new online ordering system this fall that will give instructors more incentive to submit on time. This new program should further ease the task of submitting orders. D u r i n g new student orientations, Eisentrager encouraged students to take an active role in halting the cycle of late orders and costly textbooks Teachers fail to submit textbook orders in time for the start of the semester at by reminding the UMKC bookstore. Photo by Roze Brooks