Bookstore policies meant to help students

In light of a recent lawsuit against major textbook publisher, Follett Higher Education Group, in which two students at Daytona Beach Community College allegedly charged the company of illegal price increases, the University Bookstore has made it clear that they do not hold any contractual relationship with Follett and pride themselves in policies that are fair to Boston College students.

"The best possible partner for the Bookstore is the students," said Tom McKenna, the director of the University Bookstore. Through initiatives such as the textbook buyback program, the Bookstore looks to put money back into students' pockets rather than the publishers'. If the Bookstore has received a faculty order for a textbook for the upcoming semester, they will purchase the textbook from the student at 50 percent of the new retail price, regardless of whether the student bought the book new or used.

If the new retail price of a textbook is $100, a student would receive $50 back from the Bookstore during the buyback period. McKenna notes that oftentimes this money is quickly spent back at the Bookstore, especially around the holiday season.

If a faculty member did not place an order for a textbook, the price is then assessed at its "national value" which can range from zero to 30 percent of the book's new retail value, according to the Bookstore's Web site. This price is based upon the demand for the book at other college campuses. Both the new retail price and the national value are prices set by the publishing companies, not the Bookstore.

In order to draw attention to its buyback program, the BC Bookstore pioneered a technique that has now been adopted by many other college campuses across the country: the customized e-mail.

The Bookstore has access to each student's classes and books bought, which allows them to send every student a customized e-mail giving them an example of a textbook they purchased and its buyback value.

This provides students with the information they want, making it more appealing for them to sell their books to the Bookstore, as they know what kind of a deal they're going to get.

Otherwise, many students will automatically assume that they will be scammed by the Bookstore, when this is not necessarily the case.

In actuality, the Bookstore's revenue comprises only five cents of every dollar spent on a textbook.

The publishing company receives 79 cents of every dollar spent and the Bookstore uses the remaining 16 cents for its operating costs.

McKenna also understands student qualms about the routine publishing of updated editions, which prevents them from getting any money back from certain textbooks.

"We can't buy them, and you can't sell them. The publishing companies don't like used books, though the demand has exceeded the supply for a number of years," he said.

McKenna further explained that the BC Bookstore is independently owned and operated, meaning that the Bookstore management works for Boston College rather than a contract manager - a company such as Follett.

A majority of bookstores across college campuses are independent, but several others, such as Daytona Beach Community College, are contractually linked to booksellers. "The school expects us to be fair to our students, alumni, and other people on campus," said McKenna.

Another example of this fairness is the Bookstore's policy on price rounding. Rounding to the next 25 cent increment is a common practice in the bookselling industry.

At the BC Bookstore, McKenna explained that such rounding is in practice to speed up transactions, but that when rounding prices, the Bookstore rounds in the student's favor, giving them a few extra cents back.

In response to student backlash against high but inevitable textbook prices, McKenna says that his employees have done Internet "shopping" on popular Web sites where BC students sell their textbooks in order to see the typical prices.

Overall, McKenna has found that the prices are inconsistent, and in many cases, the student can get just as good of a deal or better by selling their books back to the Bookstore.

With regard to the recent litigation involving Follett, the two Daytona Beach Community College students, Thomas Rebman and Danny Brandner, accused the company of illegal price rounding, even though they were referring to an increase in pennies. The students argue that this marginal increase when multiplied across Follett's over 750 bookstores, could amount to millions of dollars.

They also allege that the company purchased used textbooks from students below the requisite 50 percent of the new retail price. They seek $5 million in damages as part of a class-action suit that would require Follett to reimburse all students who purchased textbooks if a judge rules in the boys' favor.