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Cheap overseas textbooks challenge UB Bookstore
The issue of high textbook prices—and concerns that students who purchase books on campus can’t access the same deep discounts as those who shop online—arose in a conversation with representatives from the University Bookstore during yesterday’s meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.
In one of his courses, Robert Wetherhold, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said students are purchasing a required text on sites such as eBay for more than 90 percent below the list price.
“I’m teaching a course in which the textbook costs approximately $160, but there also exists an international edition that my students have come across—a paperback edition—that costs $15,” he said. “Is that sort of discount available in large numbers for our bookstore?”
Unfortunately, the answer is “no.” The issue comes down to legal restraints, said William Adamczak, textbook manager for the University Bookstore.
“The problem is that publishers decide to sell their product overseas at a much lower rate than they do here in the United States,” he said. “Their reasoning is that they want to spread education to what they consider less fortunate countries than the United States; however, China and Japan really don’t need the same price breaks as some of the Third-World countries they’re [targeting].”
There have been numerous attempts by online distributors to establish business models based on purchasing textbooks overseas and reselling them domestically, he added, but they’ve all met with legal crackdowns from publishers.
Stanley Bruckenstein, professor of chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), noted that the problem seems similar to the controversial price disparities that exist between foreign versus domestically produced prescription drugs.
In addition, Adamczak pointed out that the University Bookstore is somewhat stymied by the tight overheads common to the bookstore industry.
More than 76 cents on the dollar from each sale returns directly to the publisher, he said, and about 19 cents is spent on overhead costs, including operating expenses, freight costs and employee salaries. About 4.5 cents is left over to reinvest in the store itself, he added.
Also presenting from the bookstore was Gregory Neumann, director of the University Bookstore, who told senators that he is interested in establishing an official bookstore advisory committee to help increase communication between the bookstore and UB faculty.
The proposal met with strong overall support. Gayle Brazeau, associate dean for academic affairs, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, pointed out that such a committee could help guarantee greater coordination between on-campus events and bookstore hours, as well as facilitate communication about materials other than textbooks that faculty want to see available for purchase, such as pedagogical texts and books featured on WBFO’s “Meet the Author” series.
In other business, Robert Hoeing, chair of the Faculty Senate and associate professor of linguistics, CAS, proposed that senators re-activate the former Faculty Senate Public Service and Urban Affairs Committee under the new name of the Faculty Senate Community Outreach Committee. The purpose of the committee would be to address issues related to faculty engagement in local activities outside of the traditional bounds of the classroom.
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