Editorial:
When you're in the opinion-editorial biz, you learn to take overwhelming public reaction in stride, and our editorial a couple issues ago (http://spectrum.mcckc.edu/archives/2007-10-26/opinions/editorial.htm) about closing the Penn Valley bookstore was no exception.
Almost immediately after publication, we could sense a powerful tsunami of student fury, swelling swift and sharp. Menacing crowds and clouds gathered near the bookstore door one morning before it opened, and we were certain we smelled a lot of warm yeast being kneaded into an uprising.
Turned out to be mostly folks from some squirrel class looking for M&Ms and blue books before a test.
Yet all was not calm. "You wrote a what about what?" lamented our parents. "Nobody told me we had an op-ed department! I coulda been a opinionated contenda!!" roared a fellow Spectrum reporter, gnashing teeth and ripping his shirt. Last Tuesday, a passing Humanities student inquired, "Spectrum? Isn't that the gaybashing magazine I always see in doctors' offices?"
We also received a kindly email from new Bookstore manager Selin (pronounced like Celine) Gaona, requesting an opportunity to respond. We were so glad to hear someone had, you know, read what we wrote, we asked if we could come hang out with her one afternoon, and she said yes.
We went to see her in her Bookstore office, in between employee orientation sessions. Gaona, an MCC graduate with management experience from Target, said she is still learning every day on her new job. She said she appreciates the challenges students face, especially when they have to buy books.
"When you're paying $200, $150 for a textbook - I just graduated, I know how hard it is!" she said.
She showed us a new poster about to go up, that spells out bookstore textbook policies. Her intent is to assist students in understanding "why the books are the way they are." She said she is already finding out more about the textbook process than she knew as a student.
We asked Gaona how she felt about the issues raised in our editorial, and found her surprisingly sympathetic.
"I think you have very good points from a student perspective," she said. "I agree, from a student perspective, but there are still other factors that I cannot control."
For example, she said, rising prices for new books are driven by the publishing industry, and no bookseller can fight that. In addition, the critical "adoption" decision on which textbooks will be required for courses each semester is not up to Gaona or the bookstore, but is made by faculty and approved by administrators.
"We follow what they say to us, as a bookstore." If a teacher lists a book as required, instead of optional or recommended - which we believe would be the more accurate designations for most texts at PVCC - it is simply not possible for Gaona to second-guess, or "know better" than the instructors what they plan to use for their own classes.
We asked her about "bundles," usually shrinkwrapped packages including the textbook piggybacked with a CD or other pork paraphernalia, which publishers use, sometimes with minor text revisions, to justify expensive new editions that can be required more frequently.
Gaona said she is quite aware of the problem, and endeavors to keep student priorities in mind in such situations.
"For example, there is a class which has a bundle, that has a jump drive in it. The class does not use the jump drive, but it was agreed upon that the jump drive was going to be in it. They made a bundle out of it. Well, this semester, the bundle has been upgraded to a 1 gig jump drive instead of a 256 jumpdrive. So we call the instructor and say 'Why did you want this book, because you're not even using the old one?' And the instructor goes 'Yeah, you're right!' But that would've been another $30-40 added to the student; instead we reduced it down $68. So we are looking out for the student."
This is exactly what we wanted to hear. But aside from the best pro-active customer service, we asked her, how can the PVCC Bookstore compete with the rock-bottom line of lower prices for used texts available from independent online booksellers?
"I agree there will be some books that will be definitely cheaper on the Internet," she answered. "And the Internet has definitely cut into the Bookstore's profits, I'm sure. Not just ours, but every single bookstore in the country. But - you have a choice. You could come here, or you could not."
Gnoa said she differed with us on our assertion that Penn Valley students are somehow being duped or exploited by the Bookstore.
"One thing I don't agree with you on in the article, is how you portray the students at Penn Valley, or any other student...I don't agree with that. I don't think the Penn Valley students are ignorant," she said.
"Some may choose to be ignorant of certain facts, but this information is on the Internet. According to my sources, most students do not even check their email. They choose not to do that. They choose not to go to the website. However, we are trying to get them more educated. We put up signs saying they can go to the Internet and get more information, and order their books on the Internet. We are going to send a blanket email out, three times before the semester starts, just so that people will be informed. But if I was a student, I don't think I'd appreciate being called ignorant."
She had a point. No one likes to be called ignorant, and we were wrong to presume everyone's experience mirrors ours. We had come to Penn Valley still green behind the gills, and naively fell in with the crowd who thought textbooks grew on trees and were picked by publishing farmers, who brought them to market only at the campus Bookstore. We never realized there might be sensible alternatives. We knew about Amazon, but had thought it was only for pleasure readers.
We remember well the first time we heard you could buy textbooks online at prices far cheaper than the campus site. It was early in the semester, still within the full-refund period, and a teacher frankly suggested that buying books at Bookstore prices was for suckers. We took his hint and ordered used textbooks, still in excellent condition, from two independent Internet booksellers. When they arrived at our door a few days later, we took the identical texts we'd bought at the Penn Valley Bookstore back, for full refunds.
It was a most profitable bit of education. We'd saved a little over $350.
When we pointed out that by buying this way, a student could potentially take several losses - though we personally have never had to - before even equaling the price of one new text sold at the PVCC Bookstore, Gaona agreed. She said it would be a matter of choice, but the security of getting the right books on time would be more important to her, because it would save all the worries and risks of dealing with other online vendors.
We asked about the possibility of including a link from the Bookstore website to the MCC classifieds (http://classifieds.mcckc.edu/), since now when you click on "Sell Textbooks," it only says "The textbook sell site has currently been disabled. Please check back later, or visit us in the bookstore for the best buyback prices around."
Gaona said she would investigate, but warned that buying books from individuals offered no guarantee of getting the correct texts, or getting them on time if wrong ones need to be returned. She said that even Amazon has a lengthy return process, which could leave a student without books or usable money for them for some time, while the campus bookstore can often resolve problems immediately.
We were impressed with Gaona's dedication to student interests, derived from her own experience, and we felt optimistic about the future of the bookstore in her hands. She asked us if Spectrum could help get the word out about the choices she's offering, and of course we're here to help.
"The information is given--check your email, we have computers!" she laughed. "You can post it if you want, you can put everything on the bulletin board, if you wish to do so. And there are actually a couple of bulletin boards out in front of our bookstore, where you can buy the books. I'm not against that. Because I was a student as well, I want to be on the side of the student, and not on the side of a machine that just wants to make money. It's just not what I'm about."
So before the mobs start to roil this time, we do herewith urge you as a student to educate yourself. Check out the Internet's low low prices with self-service customer support, the bulletin boards with postings right before you enter the Bookstore, and the MCC classifieds.
Compare potential savings from using these sources with the PVCC Bookstore prices online or in line at a register, probably at higher cost, but backed by a full-service staff devoted to getting you to class with the right stuff, right away.
Wherever you choose to part with your book dollars now, consider that even more encouraging for students is the future: Gaona and her superiors want in the coming years to change the fundamental nature of MCC bookstores to a genuinely student-friendly operation.
Unknown to us at the time we were fulminating over our editorial, the District was already deliberating over recommendations made by the Bookstore Review Process Committee, a group comprised of about a dozen current and former bookstore staff and management, including the two men who currently oversee the MCC bookstores.
We spoke with Reinhard Weglarz, MCC District Director of Management and Auxiliary Services, and Blue Valley biology instructor Todd Martin, who's succeeding recently retired Julie Dawson as District Bookstores Manager.
In their review, the Committee compared current District practices - which they found to be fairly consistent between the campuses - with those of bookstores at other colleges, in order "to determine what changes can improve our service to our customer and staff."
Their foremost recommendation is to implement online textbook adoption next semester, which would provide faculty with retail textbook pricing information for the first time, and allow staff and students to order selections sooner.
They also suggest that each new student receive an orientation package which would include bookstore FAQs, coupons, return/refund policies and advertising touting MCC bookstores as the source of choice for textbooks. (And how about some testimonials from students who saved serious cash using alternatives?)
But the Committee significantly breaks ground by seeking to enable faculty and bookstore staff to reach out and address student concerns. They want to "create marketing internships for students in the bookstores to help with new ideas on how the bookstores can be better positioned and marketed."
And they say "student focus groups need to be conducted at Longview, Penn Valley, and the BTC Campuses...[which would] research student preferences on self-service versus counter service...[and] obtain other information that might improve our services and service levels at the campuses."
Most notably to that end, the Committee proposes that MCC "pilot a limited textbook rental program with departments that would agree to use specific textbooks for a period of three years to help reduce the rising textbook costs for our students...[and] examine other areas that would make textbooks more affordable for our students."
Specifically this would include:
We asked Martin why as a teacher he sees the need for textbooks, since more up-to-date and comprehensive content is nowadays freely available online. MIT, for example, puts everything they teach, from curricula to classes to lecture videos and all source materials, entirely online and accessible to anyone anytime, without charge, though without credit. (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm)
Martin concurred, but said he felt most students still need a textbook. "A textbook is supportive," he said, "in case students need review or backup. It gathers a lot of information into one, primary source."
"One thing that the MCC bookstore personnel agree on is that the price of textbooks is a huge expense for students, and something that many first-time college students are not prepared for," said Weglarz.
"We are taking steps to minimize the impact on the student of the soaring prices for textbooks, " he said, referring to the Committee recommendations. He said the hope is that since Martin is an instructor, "he will carry more weight and have a lot more credibility in working with our faculty to adopt materials that are the least costly alternative for our students."
Weglarz said renting textbooks is "a very costly program to start and requires the support of faculty to continue to use the specific text for a number of semesters, something that our culture here at MCC is not yet accustomed to."
However, Weglarz said Martin "will be able to help us with and evaluate the possibility of implementing such a program." He said former bookstore manager Julie Dawson could return to help set up and oversee the pilot rental operation, which the Committee report doesn't foresee to be practicable until the fall of 2009 at the earliest.
We hope to have moved on from Penn Valley by then, but we have every confidence in the exceptional people we've met who are now handling the books for MCC. We appreciate the attention they paid to us in our editorial process - though we can't calculate it in dollars - and the dedication with which they'll undoubtedly help pre-alumni to come.
Merry end of the old year to each, and may the next years bring peace and prosperity to us all in our little Valley of Penn, until ultimately the pen will be a thing of the past, no trees will die for paper, and neither man nor woman need suffer the yoke of heavy hardcopy textbooks - grown, sold, rented, bought back or stolen - ever again!
Tell us what you think. Write Spectrum at editor@mcckc.edu.
Copyright 2007 Metropolitan Community College