As a senior at the University of Oregon, I’ve been around for several ASUO elections, and despite Jonah Fruchter’s statement in the article, “Commitment to tangible goals sets ‘Campus Improvement Movement’ apart from the field” in Wednesday’s edition of The Oregon Daily Emerald, declaring that “Jonathan Rosenberg and Avital Ostfield are the only candidates for ASUO Exec who offer real, tangible goals,” I have to laugh in disagreement. Why? Because a non-profit on-campus textbook exchange is a completely intangible goal.
Every single student running for ASUO Exec in the past has promised the same goal of cheaper textbooks. The only difference between the past and present candidates is that Rosenberg and Ostfield have an actual, though unrealistic, plan: They swear they can provide cheaper textbooks from an on-campus location rather than the across-the-street big, bad Bookstore.
According to the Courts per curiam opinion on the proposed ballot measure submitted by Jonathan Rosenberg, which can be found on the ASUO’s Web site, “the textbook exchange would be independently run outside of the University of Oregon Bookstore, and would not utilize student incidental fee monies.” How is it even possible for the textbook exchange to provide cheaper course books and be non-profit? How does one pay for a building and full staff as Rosenberg promises in the article, “Bookstore offers exchange, but it remains unknown” in Wednesday’s edition of The Oregon Daily Emerald, if incidental fees are in fact not used? How would the University pay to train all these employees Rosenberg wants to hire, not to mention pay for the advertisement for the exchange, and the utility bills and janitorial work needed for the building? Wouldn’t the textbook exchange have to be a “for-profit non-profit,” a non-existent term used by Rosenberg in that same article to describe the UO Bookstore? And if Rosenberg and the ASUO change the program to be funded from incidental fees, how do they explain why all students, regardless of their own textbook fees, are forced to pay for a service that most benefits those with more hefty textbook bills?
As for providing a way for students to purchase books through organizations other than the UO Bookstore, this is in no way a new idea. In fact, many options are already in place. Smith Family Bookstore is a popular alternative to the UO Bookstore, but if student would rather stay with an association they know, there’s the Online Book Swap, found on the UO Bookstore’s Web site. For the more adventurous and thrifty shoppers, both new and used texts can be found online at amazon.com or other cyber bookstores such as half.com or ecampus.com.
In addition to large online book sites, students can find their textbooks locally with campusvortex.com or craigslist.org.
Why does the University need to find ways to fund another unrealistic program when students have so many other options and, as Rosenberg perceptively pointed out, so little money to spend?
– Julie Morgan is a University student