Mary Jane Books, a private bookstore in Albany, recently won a lawsuit against SUNY Albany to force the university to release textbook lists to bookstores located off-campus.
I wrote an article last semester about a similar situation here at UB. As many students can testify, not all professors or departments are completely happy with our on-campus bookstore; nor, for that matter, are many students. High prices and a monopoly on products are common complaints against the University Bookstore, owned and operated by national conglomerate Efollet.
I have to admit I'm slightly prejudiced in the matter. When I was a freshman taking an English course and my professor told the class we had to buy our textbook from some place called "Talking Leaves" on South Campus, my first reaction was surprise. Wasn't the University Bookstore the, well, university bookstore?
I was a freshman without a car and without any experience in downtown Buffalo. Just take the bus to South and walk, one of my local friends advised. Okay, but let me tell you, walking a few blocks anywhere in early January in windy Buffalo is not very high on my list of favorite things to do.
It's not uncommon, or wrong, for a professor to order texts from a source outside of the University Bookstore. Instructors can opt not to send their booklists to the University Bookstore, if they want to order from a different store.
Still, it's incredibly frustrating to be told that you have to buy one text from Talking Leaves, one from Greeks and Sneaks, two from the Medical Bookstore and two from the University Bookstore - a situation in which I found myself second semester, freshman year.
At the time, it seemed like a conspiracy to waste as much of my time as possible. Greeks and Sneaks? Where is that? Conveniently located near Talking Leaves, but not very close to the Medical Bookstore or the on-campus bookstore.
When I learned that Talking Leaves didn't accept campus cash - repository of money saved with which to purchase textbooks - I was more than a little concerned. How am I supposed to pay for my textbooks when my money is already in campus cash form?
It's not that Talking Leaves doesn't accept campus cash because the managers want to make student lives as difficult as possible. While researching the article, the manager of Talking Leaves explained to me that the fees FSA charges for the campus cash system make the cost prohibitive for a small-scale bookstore like Talking Leaves.
I'm fond of bookstores, especially small, private bookstores. In my hometown, there aren't any large chains, just numerous private new- and used-book stores. They're good for the community and generally offer a much warmer atmosphere than the Barnes and Nobles and Borders of the world.
But should students be forced to patronize them? I can't help feel that every time I'm forced to go to Talking Leaves or Greeks and Sneaks that I'm trading one evil for another. It's all well and good to say that the University Bookstore has higher prices and a monopoly on campus, but really, if you only release your list to Talking Leaves (whose prices really don't seem that much lower than on campus) what are you creating but a monopoly? A monopoly that doesn't offer students a convenient location or the option of buying the rest of his or her textbooks while in the store, for that matter.
Ideally, the legislation would lead to the opening of book lists to all interested bookstores, not just bookstores that Dr. Smith in the XYZ department decides to make his students support. I'd like to be able to decide, as the person handing over well over 200 dollars each semester, what store I'm going to sponsor.
I probably wouldn't choose the University Bookstore, to be honest, but I'd at least like to be able to make my own decision on the matter.
