By [email protected]

It seems that, even though the university is in a budget crisis, business at the bookstore is booming.Here are some common problems students have with the bookstore:#1. Don’t require “new” books every few semesters. Even in fields of study where knowledge increases rapidly through scientific discoveries, the fundamentals remain largely unchanged.My accounting class has a new textbook ($115) this semester; what did the students use last semester? Has accounting changed so much since then that the previous text is obsolete?To the bookstore, departments and instructors: please help us save a few dollars by using the same text longer.#2. When textbooks are bought back, students only get back a fraction of what was paid for it. Yet the bookstore marks up the prices again so purchasing a “used” book is almost as expensive as buying it new.#3. Workbooks and solution manuals have a “new” price and a “used” price listed on the shelves, but the bookstore doesn’t buy back workbooks. They should; it might be helpful to compare my solutions with another student who’s already gone through the course. And I could save at least a couple of dollars by buying used.#4. Textbook buyback occurs during finals week. What if I need to study from my text before I take my test? Then I can’t try to sell back my book until later in the week, when quotas may have already been filled.School’s hard enough and expensive enough already. Can’t we get a break from the bookstore?