THE UNIVERSITY Bookstore is considering what to do with its $50,000 surplus. The leading proposals, according to Student Council, are to donate this money to lighting and sound equipment for performing arts CIOs and a new van for the Student Escort Service. Many would support the idea of the bookstore using its surplus to benefit the University. But the system must be changed so that the bookstore is not a way for the University to earn money, but is instead a place for students to purchase affordable goods.
Prices of many items are disproportionately higher at the bookstore than at stores around Charlottesville. A bottle of Bic Wite Out is $1.95 at the bookstore, but only $1.42 at Staples. As the costs get higher, so too does the price difference. A 20 pack of Advil Cold & Sinus costs $6.99 at the bookstore, but $5.29 at CVS. The book "John Adams" by David McCullough is $24.50 at Barnes & Noble, yet $35.00 at the University Bookstore. This price disparity is unfair to students.
The bookstore does not have any contractual obligation to give its profits to the University, but it is rather an implied agreement that the bookstore will donate money to the University's Endowment for Excellence each year. The bookstore usually tries to donate at least $200,000 each year. This year, the bookstore decided to give some of its surplus directly to the students, in the $50,000 which it has offered to Student Council to direct to student needs. According to Bookstore Director John Keats, "The bookstore supports the students of this University and donates any surplus only in the interest of helping the University." This is certainly a noble gesture, but it should not be the responsibility of the bookstore to raise money for the University, which according to Keats, the bookstore tries to do in addition to paying for its own expenses.
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The bookstore should reduce the price of its school supplies, books and health and beauty supplies in order to help students. The price of textbooks is no higher than the national average, according to Keats. He adds that students could get more money during the buy back period, when the bookstore offers to buy used text books at the end of each semester, if professors got their orders in on time and used the same books for the next semester. Yet, the sheer quantity of books, which many students are required to buy, calls for prices below the national average. The bookstore could perhaps cover this cost if it gave less money to the University and only worried about paying off its own expenses. The price of logo apparel at the bookstore is reasonable, since these things are expensive at any university, and many of the people who buy these goods are visitors rather than students.
Some will argue that because the bookstore gives its money to the University, students should support it, no matter what the costs. This logic is flawed. Students would still be supporting the bookstore if it charged less money for certain items, and this might even increase business for the bookstore. Students should not be responsible for the University raising extra money from anything besides tuition. Some students are on scholarships and simply cannot afford to pay for the bookstore's higher prices. Other students are from out of state and already pay high tuition.
Students also should decide what they want to do with their own money. Many students would be much happier if they saved money when they went to the bookstore, rather than if a performing arts group gets new sound equipment.
No one forces students to shop at the bookstore. But its convenience makes it inevitable; first years who do not have cars often have no other choice.
The bookstore staff and management have always been helpful to students and visitors. The problem is University policies, which encourage the bookstore to make a profit at the expense of students. The University must accept that the bookstore should be a place where students can get reasonably priced goods, rather than a gold mine of profits.
The University is meant to serve its students. Being overcharged at the campus bookstore cannot be accepted as part of student life at this University.
(Harris Freier's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at hfreier@cavalierdaily.com.)
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