Academy Reacts to High Bookstore Prices

At the beginning of every term, Exonians line up at the Exeter Bookstore to buy their supplies for their new classes. People often hear muttered whispers about how expensive books are, or perhaps how students hope that their financial aid will cover them. What they might not realize, however, is the amount of thought carefully put into the pricing of the books.Bookstore Manager Marilyn Miller described the process that the bookstore goes through in purchasing their books. PEA outsources its transactions to Barnes and Noble College, and every few years, they update their contract, where they agree upon the textbooks, and also negotiate faculty discounts and departmental discounts. Students, however, receive no special discounts.Next, teachers order their books and send them to textbook distributors to be filled. In order to save students money, the priority goes to first source used books. Used books are often short in supply, so if there aren’t enough used books, they purchase new textbooks. The balances of the orders go directly to the publishers for new books.“The most expensive books are the foreign language books and the science books,” Miller said.“Foreign language books have to be imported by foreign book distributors, and they take 4-6 weeks to arrive at the bookstore. The science books frequently go into new editions because of updating, and this is an expensive process.”In addition, these expensive texts often go out-of-edition, making them nearly impossible to return.“The bookstore has no special policy on any particular books,” Miller continued.“Our strict return policy is a reflection of the publishers’ demands when returning books. Publishers will bounce books back to the bookstore if they are not in pristine condition. Our strict guidelines, of course, only apply to new textbooks.”Miller also said that the bookstore markup is so low that, in order to stay in business, they need to sell other products as well. “The publishers and distributors offer the bookstore standard discounts that they would offer any other campus bookstore, not based on volume. The bookstore markup on textbooks is so low that the bookstore needs to sell clothing, gifts and other items with higher margins in order to succeed,” Miller said.Miller added, “The bookstore is also very consistent with its discounts. No special discounts are offered to students on financial aid, as that is up to the Financial Aid Department’s discretion. [I]n the almost 17 years that I have been here at the school bookstore, the percentage markup on textbooks has not been altered, and the discounts offered to depts. and faculty/staff have not changed.”Despite this, many students have found the textbook prices to be very high, especially in history and the sciences. “[The] price of textbooks that I have to buy for other classes that only require one textbook are rather large and will cost more than all the materials that I need to buy for those English and humanities courses,” lower Michael Kang said.Students and teachers alike have tried to find ways of circumventing these high prices at the bookstore. One option for many students is that of buying books online, on sites such as Amazon. “It is unfortunate to see the same books online for a price that is way lower than the price of the books that are more conveniently sold to us. I think that Amazon is definitely a viable option, as not only is it cheaper, but it can be sent to your location within a couple of days,” upper Jonathan Regenold said.Kang also referred to the idea of using Amazon to buy books. “In regards to Amazon, it is often better because there is a greater certainty that there will be a used books than in the bookstore. I, however, personally like to go to the common room of my dorm and see if there is a copy of one on the shelves.”For the teachers, one way of resolving this problem is to create their own textbooks. This procedure has been implemented in the Latin department, among others. The department wrote their own textbook, Ludus, mainly for curricular reasons, which leads to a decrease in price. “I think the prices of Latin textbooks compare favorably to other textbooks, especially because we have a homegrown textbook, Ludus, which we produce in-house, so it’s not as expensive as other textbooks by an outside publisher,” classics instructor Nicholas Unger said.“I think as possible, we’re trying to make our own textbooks, mainly because we want to have it conform to our educational philosophy, but we certainly look out for students as buyers too.”The recent decision by some members of the Academy to implement Apple iPads into the classroom brings further the possibilities for the future of the bookstore, as digital materials and e-books encompass a larger range of material. “I know that the faculty are discussing the possibility of a tablet requirement for all students. One of the benefits of this will be the purchase of electronic textbooks at relatively lower prices,” Regenold said.Unger further noted the usage of digital materials in the classroom, in which case students would not have to pay for the textbooks.“Maybe, if we do require students to have iPads next year, perhaps it would be cheaper to have e-books for all the classes. And we actually post Ludus online; there’s a digital version of it,” Unger said.Many classes already use textbooks that can be found on online databases, thus removing the requirement of actually purchasing a physical copy. Furthermore, even if a purchase was necessary, e-books are generally cheaper than their physical counterparts, and thus would still save the students’ money.