MSA promotes bookstore savings

New pricing options aim to save students money on textbooks.

By Megan Pearl

Published Dec. 4, 2009

MU is attempting to save students money on textbooks, but the University Bookstore is concerned about relaying the different options to students.

The Missouri Students Association's Academic Affairs committee is looking to perform a "textbook blitz" to begin mass advertisement of the rebate and rental programs the University Bookstore offers. The textbook savings are new to MU as of this semester.

MSA passed two bills acknowledging the new rental program at MU and announced MSA will put out flyers and utilize other modes of communication to inform students about the rebate program.

"Despite the efforts of the bookstore in alerting students to the rebate opportunity, many students, especially new freshmen, do not know of the rebate opportunity," the resolution on the University Bookstore's Textbook Rebate stated.

The rebates give the student a voucher for 5 percent of all the books purchased.

"One of the more popular methods that has come into vogue recently is the textbook rental program," Academic Affairs Committee Chairman Ian Krause said. "It's quite a considerable amount of savings when you come down to it."

Student Auxiliary Services spokeswoman Michelle Froese suggested looking to the new options under used books. The newest option to MU is the rental program.

"It's a pilot and limited to a few titles," Froese said. "There are about 50 titles under guaranteed buyback, a third option is special pricing on certain used titles because some of these editions are very old and we want to make that price better for students."

The rental program is facing opposition from professors who do not want to commit to the same book for multiple years in a row, Froese said. This issue applies to certain subject areas in constant development where new and better books have the potential to be published.

Some used books could receive new pricing. Publishers set new prices on textbooks and then establish used prices based off of the price new ones, Froese said.

The guaranteed buyback program offers to buy back the used books from students at the end of the semester.

"The book has to be readopted by the university for the next semester," Froese said. "For example, 'Rock Recall,' for the music appreciation class, has a new price of $124.55 and the guaranteed buyback price on the sticker will say $62.25."

Another example Froese said was "Exploring Psychology" which has a new price of $84.55, and if it's going to be used again it will be $42.25. The information will be on a colored sticker on the cover of the book.

There are 800 titles listed on the buyback list for next semester, but the number is subject to change as professors submit their course requirements.

E-books have been steadily increasing in price in response to the high demand for books online, Froese said. The University Bookstore is also checking into Espresso Book Machine printing, which prints public domain books and can sell them for around $2 instead of the usual $10 for a book.

"The options are complicated, so communicating the special pricing is difficult," Froese said.