OUR VIEWS Consensus Opinion

What ' s in it for us?

With textbook prices rising, Auxiliary Services and Barnes & amp; Noble have increased their efforts to obtain more used books for students to purchase. We share their concerns, but Auxiliary Services and the bookstore ' s current initiatives only address part of the underlying problem and more options must be considered.

First, encouraging professors to send in their book lists ahead of time will mostly likely not make a significant contribution to increasing the book inventories. The current deadline of March 11 for Fall 2005 is far too early because many professors do not know whether or not they ' ll even be teaching the class by that time.

Additionally, while it is admirable for the bookstore to reach out to students through contests that include rewarding the student organization that brings in the most used books, they will not be sufficient enough to deter students from seeking out other sources for selling and buying their books. The bookstore faces intense competition from internet retailers like half.com and Amazon, not to mention on-campus vendors - students themselves who sell their books to friends and through git.ads - and the multitude of Tech book-trade websites. What ' s going to encourage students to sell a book back to the bookstore when they know they can get more money from another source?

The bookstore should examine how to give students more reasons to sell their books back. The first step is to survey students on where they typically sell their books, why they chose that venue and what would motivate them to sell back to the bookstore. The next step is for the bookstore to examine its own pricing structure. Why only pay flat rates of 10-50 percent of the purchase price? Instead, there needs to be a graduated rate structure based on the condition of the textbook. Books in almost-new condition should fetch a higher price, while books in poor condition should be offered to students at discounted prices.

While it is unlikely that the growing costs of textbooks will decline anytime soon, it doesn ' t mean that all of the costs and burdens have to be passed on to the students.

Vote one more time

This week ' s SGA election had a record 42 percent turnout, but voters ' jobs aren ' t done yet - on April 18-19 there will be a runoff election between David Andersen and Andrew Howard for undergraduate student body president. Take the time to learn about both candidates ' platforms before you cast your vote Monday at www.elections.gatech.edu.