THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2008
NEWS
3A
>> TEXTBOOKS
Taylor Miller/KANSAN
Anna Tabakh. Leawood senior, purchases books for an independent study class offered through the University of Kansas. Tabakh, like other students at the University of Kansas, couldn't afford to buy all the books required for the course and decided to share the expense with a fellow classmate.
Beat the Bookstore moves to new location
BY RUSTIN DODD
rdodd@kansan.com
Beat the Bookstore, at 622 W. 12th St., has joined the list of businesses to leave the corner of 12th and Indiana streets. But, unlike Yello Sub and The Crossing, which shut down in the fall, Beat the Bookstore has relocated to 1741 Massachusetts – the former location of the adult novelty store Naughty but Nice.
The paint was still drying and the bookshelves were empty, but on Monday, Beat the Bookstore coowner Denise Keating said that the store was open for business.
"If they could find the book they wanted in one of these boxes, we would sell it to them," said Keating, who co-owns Beat the Bookstore with her husband Dan.
Beat the Bookstore opened last May as an alternative to KU Booksbooks, 1301 Jayhawk Blvd., University Book Shop, 1116 W.23rd St. and the Jayhawk Bookstore, 1420 Crescent Rd.
The bookstore's business concept is to offer cheaper textbook prices and high buy-back prices.
The Keatings said they heard rumors a short time after they opened the store at 12th Street that the building they shared with Yello Sub was going to be sold.
But, they weren't formally notified until last fall that they would have to move (the corner of 12th and
Indiana streets is the proposed location of the Oread Inn hotel project).
The Keatings said they began looking for alternative locations soon after.
The 1741 Massachusetts St. location became available after a judge's ruling said Naughty but Nice was in violation of a city code. Lawrence restricts adult-themed stores to locations along highways. Naughty but Nice left the building in early January.
"We liked the old location, but it was too small," Denise Keating said.
Although, she said Beat the Bookstore liked its proximity to the KU Bookstores at the old location because University students could compare prices with it.
However, due to its small size at the old location Beat the Bookstore couldn't carry a lot of books.
Jono Gaughan, Leawood junior, who lives one block away from the old Beat the Bookstore location, said he bought books from the store twice and looked around two or three other times.
"The last time I went in there, the selection was pretty small," Gaughan said. "But I'm a film major and a lot of students don't need film books."
Gaughan said he saved money by going to Beat the Bookstore, but said he wasn't sure if hed want to drive to the new location.
"The Union is just a short walk away for me," Gaughan said.
—Edited by Nick Mangiaracina
Textbook prices senate's concern
》 LEGISLATION
BY BRENNA HAWLEY
bhawley@kansan.com
Students who pay hundreds of dollars for expensive textbooks may not have to pay as much in the future. Student senators are going to lobby the state legislature to pass a new law that would require textbook publishers to inform professors and faculty of their books before they decide which book to use for a class.
Alex Treater, director of the Student Legislative Awareness Board, said the senators wanted to lobby for something other than general higher education issues on Higher Education Day, Feb. 13. He said he was lobbying to increase competition between textbook publishers and decrease book prices.
"A lot of times there are better deals out there," Treaster said.
States like California, Massachusetts and Washington already have textbook laws similar to the one the Student Senate is advocating. Treaster said a study in Massachusetts showed that 63 percent of the 237 professors asked did not typically know the price of the books they were looking at.
Aline Silva, Sao Paulo, Brazil, sophomore, paid $245 for her science textbooks. She is a double-major in pre-med and religious studies, and noticed a price difference between the textbooks required for larger classes and smaller books for smaller classes.
"I don't spend half as much on religious studies books as I do chemistry books, and I buy more religious studies books," Silva said.
Hamah Love, student body president, said students often thought the high book prices were the fault of the bookstore, but said the biggest percentage of money went to the textbook publishers.
Bill Madel, textbook manager at the Jayhawk Bookstore, said the bookstore was forced to pay whatever the publishers told them to. Madel, a 1999 graduate, said he paid $100 for a Spanish textbook bundle when he was in college. Now the same bundle costs $200.
"If the.publishers had their way, nothing would be buy-back," Madel said. "Everything would be one-use only."
Madel said publishers kept raising prices and producing new editions to get money out of their investment.
Love said professors were using new editions of textbooks with high-resolution photos, all of which raise the price of a textbook. She said that for a course that concentrates on pictures, like art history, high-resolution photos may be necessary, but other courses did not need high quality photos.
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"Professors can get a book that will save students $50," Love said. She said informing professors of prices would help make the textbook market more competitive and bring book prices down.
Craig Martin, professor of biology, is no stranger to competing textbook companies. When he considers textbooks for his Biology 100 class, he routinely looks at textbooks from different companies.
"I have 1,000 students and I'd like to save them some money," Martin said.
Martin considers the price, accuracy and completeness of information, writing style and illustrations in a book when choosing which书 to assign to the class.
"I literally set texts side-by-side and read a passage and decide which book is better," Martin said.
Martin said pricing information
was readily available to professors considering books. Professors only have to ask for a price and they will be told.
Joe Heepert, professor of chemistry, said he didn't see it as a problem for faculty to know prices of books, but price did not determine which book a professor chose.
He said for most professors, the primary decision would come down to which textbook serves the students best. He said they wanted students to have the best knowledge for the subject they were learning, even if a book was slightly more expensive than another available option.
"I'm not sure a law is going to work to expand the number of faculty that looks at price." Heppert said. "It may add additional information and help with balancing the quality of the text with its cost."
Rep. Barbara Craft (R-Junction City), member of the Education Committee, said it was a good idea for a professor to be aware of the price of a book, but if a better-quality book is available, it should be considered as well.
"I don't know if price should be a guiding factor," Craft said.
David Hakensen, spokesperson for textbook publisher Pearson, said developing a textbook could cost up to $1 million, which included payment of authors, experts, editors, researchers, reviewers and designers. He said prices were also affected by the cost of raw materials like paper and fuel. He said inflation is responsible for 77 percent of the increase in textbook prices.
He said students had the ability to purchase cheaper alternatives to
expensive textbooks, such as simple black-and-white editions, loose leaf editions, or digital versions of the textbooks. These options can be half the price of the hardcover textbook.
He said the company made pricing information available on the Internet,
"If you see the amount of information that publishers already make available to faculty and students about pricing and revisions, a law is probably unnecessary," Hakensen said in an e-mail.
—Edited by Madeline Hyden
by the numbers
According to the National Association of College Stores in 2004, every dollar a student spent on textbooks was split nine different ways. Here is where each piece goes. (in cents)
32.3 - Publisher's Paper, printing and editorial costs
15.4 - Publisher's marketing costs
11.6 — Author income
10.9 — College store personnel
10. 0 — Publisher's general and administrative
7. 0 Publisher's income
6. 8 — College store operations
4.9 — College store income
1.1 — Freight Expense
4. 9 College store income
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Asian New Year (TET)
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
7:00pm • Kansas Union Ballroom
Explore Asian-American culture's official 2008 Lunar New Year's festivity. Traditional performances, skits, and fashion trends will be introduced. Lucky money will be passed to audience members.
All you can eat Vietnamese food served for FREE before the show at the ECM (Ecumenical Christian Ministries--across the street from Yello Sub) from 5:30pm-7:00pm
FREE Admission, so invite all your family and friends!
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