The University News

Issue date: 12/1/08 Section: News

Media Credit: A Jon Effertz Illustration

Two deadlines for ordering textbooks each year have the potential of saving students a lot of money when they are respected by professors.

Pete Eisentrager, assistant director of UMKC Bookstores, reminded the UMKC Faculty Senate about the April 1 and Oct. 15 dates, as well as some other money-saving techniques, at an Oct. 7 meeting. He asked the Senate to spread the message to their respective academic units.

"Last year we provided more than $1 million in used textbooks," Eisentrager said. "That's about $325,000 in savings."

He then explained how those numbers could increase.

"The reason we ask for orders by [these dates] is we are competing with every other university in the country," Eisentrager said. "It's the name of the game - the earlier we have our orders, the earlier we can hit our wholesalers."

There are only four major wholesalers in the country, and those who are late find inventories depleted, he said.

There is another way late textbook orders punish students.

During the last two weeks of the semester, the bookstore's buyback program pays 50 percent of the price of a new book.

Eisentrager explained if a title has not been ordered for the following semester, the bookstores can only pay a very low price to a student, as it will presumably have to be resold to wholesalers.

"In the past two years, we've given about $680,000 in book buybacks, which in turn supplies us with used books," Eisentrager said. "It's almost like a rental program."

In fall 2008, on the day before finals-week book buyback, 72 percent of orders had been placed. In the spring of this year (a tougher deadline, according to Eisentrager,) 23 percent of orders had been placed for the fall courses.

This fall, things are not going as well.

On Nov. 13, almost a month after the initial deadline, 40 percent of orders had been placed, Eisentrager said. On Nov. 20, an e-mail marked "urgent" went out to campus faculty and staff, saying the percentage was still at 52 percent.

Starting on Nov. 10, the U-News conducted a survey of 180 professors chosen at random, asking if they had ordered their textbooks before November.

Of the 16 who replied, exactly half had not met the deadline. The most common reason cited was they were "too busy" or "simply forgot." Of those who had met the deadline, most said they usually used the same textbooks every year.

Continued...

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