Spring Break
Lack of communication, coordination costs students
Ruth Schmidt
Issue date: 9/4/07 Section: News
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The problem could be in the way professors place orders with the bookstore, according to Pete Eisentrager, assistant director of the UMKC Bookstores
"It is literally costing you guys as students hundreds of thousands of dollars a year," he said.
Eisentrager said professors submit book requests to ensure enough books for each class for the coming semester. It is then the bookstores' responsibility to either place an order with the publisher or a wholesaler, or buy the needed books from students at the book buyback. If orders are sent to the bookstores late, it is often impossible to fill the order with used books. This is where it gets costly, according to Eisentrager.
He said if orders are placed late, the only option the bookstores have is to order straight from the publishers at the expensive new price, also costing the university copious shipping charges.
The deadline for professors to hand in book orders to the bookstore for summer and fall is April 1, and Oct. 15 for the winter semester.
"The deadline was in April and in the last three weeks we have received just shy of 1,000 book orders," Eisentrager said Aug. 22. "On the second day of classes we received 15 orders for books."
There are reasons professors are unable to make the deadline.
"Sometimes you find out you will be teaching a class late. That leaves very little time to decide on a book that will work for you," said Liana Sega, mathematics instructor. "Sometimes people get switched from teaching one class to another. It happens."
But many professors say those situations are the exception.
"There aren't that many good reasons for missing [the deadline], at least in mathematics," said Dr. Richard Delaware, associate clinical professor of mathematics.
"The main reason [for missing the deadline] I'm sure is procrastination," said Dr. Robert Evanson, professor of Political Science.
Al Butkus, instructor of Communication Studies, offered similar sentiments.
"We live in a world where people think things can be done in 15 minutes," he said.
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