Every student and professor at AU has a personal horror story about the campus bookstore. Some students complain about waiting hours for their pre-ordered package to be found. Others complain about finding their orders completely cancelled after weeks of waiting for an important book. Professors - tired of the endless struggle to get orders right - will often whisper behind closed doors that students should save money and get their books online. So news that the bookstore is "continu[ing] to see strong sales" despite the faltering economy, is rather disheartening to those among us who would like to see the store struggle along with the common man and student.
AU has given Follett Higher Education Group a virtual monopoly over one of the most basic of our learning tools - our books. And even with the new and expanding competition offered by online bookstores such as Amazon.com or secondhand resale Web sites such as eBay or textbooks.com, the bookstore still manages to make money. This monopoly has done no good for the students, the professors or the university.
Adding insult to injury and dollars on top of dollars, the bookstore is not only given a virtual monopoly on students, but also a correspondingly free hand to jack up prices and force students to buy useless add-ons to their textbooks. In one of many personal stories The Eagle has heard about the bookstore, an AU student complained about buying a textbook for $70 at the campus store, only to find it for $50 in a nearby Barnes and Nobles. A $20 markup on an already expensive book is an unacceptable extortion of already cash-strapped students. With the economy affecting both students and those who bankroll students' educations, a $20 markup is too high a price to pay for the convenience of buying a book on campus. And though retail prices seem to be down in almost every sector, textbook prices too often still hover around the ridiculous $100 mark.
For all this money spent, the least AU students could expect would be prompt, efficient service. This clearly is not the case. Book orders that are missing, back ordered or forgotten are common occurrences that drive professors and students alike batty. In one tragi-comic instance the bookstore was prompted by a professor to order a classic, well-known, novel; but when students went to buy the book for class they found an expensive graphic novel of the same name in its place. The professor has never ordered books for her class through the bookstore since.
The end result is an inefficient bookstore that will remain inefficient until economic stimuli prod it to shape up or close up. Students should try to buy as many books as possible from outside vendors to help nudge the process along. We are the most Web-savvy generation ever, and it is time we used our power to commoditize textbooks, forcing down their price at the campus store and providing incentive for better service. Let the store struggle as we struggle; only then can we expect any change.
