The Tufts University Bookstore isn't putting Buck-A-Book out of business yet, but the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate is working on a plan that would give students more options to find reasonably priced textbooks.
In the past, professors have been encouraged to submit their book lists directly to the bookstore, but next semester the TCU Senate plans to collect book requests directly from professors and compile them in an online database.
The database will then be forwarded to the bookstore, which will make it available to students before the start of the semester.
Senator John Valentine, a senior, is spearheading the project. He said the new approach will be labor-intensive for the Senate, since senators, rather than bookstore staff, will collect and sort book list information.
"This year's push is bigger than ever. It used to be just a speech and e-mails, but now we have a whole subcommittee [for the book-list project] because we think it is just that important," Valentine said.
The subcommittee has divided responsibility for different academic departments among its five members. They plan to contact each professor to encourage them to submit their book selections early.
On Mar. 1, Valentine will present the project to the faculty of the Schools of Arts, Sciences and Engineering at a scheduled faculty meeting. When book buyback was discussed at a similar meeting last year, the bookstore received 10 percent of its book requests by the following day.
The subcommittee also plans to pass out business-sized information cards about the new Senate-run initiative in the campus center and dining halls. Students will then be asked to pass the information cards along to their professors, encouraging them to submit their book selections. Valentine said he hopes the publicity push will demonstrate student support for the project.
The subcommittee intends to collect all book selections by the end of March and to post the information online by the end of April. The group hopes to eventually add class syllabi and professor ratings to the database.
Senate historian and senior Ed Kalafarski has high hopes for the success and future growth of the project. "I would certainly use [the database] because it's so much easier when you know in advance what [the books] are going to be," he said.
Most Tufts students purchase their books from a combination of sources, including textbook Web sites and the University bookstore. Valentine said the service should provide another useful resource for students looking to save money on books.
The Senate has not yet notified the bookstore of its plans, but when asked about the proposal, Bookstore Manager Ron Gill said he thought it would have a positive effect.
"Anything that is going to enable us to benefit the students, we're going to be behind it," Gill said, adding that previous interaction with the Senate on issues like this has been helpful.
"There has been a lot of cooperation in past years from the student senate, like last year when they hand-delivered book orders to the departments," he said. "This effort enabled us to increase buyback [in 2005] by 100 percent from the previous year."
Neither the Senate nor the bookstore believes the plan will divert much business from the bookstore.
"We don't think that [if students opt to order] books online they are going to be much cheaper," Gill said, adding that as long as the bookstore's buyback program continues to be successful, there should be competitive prices on campus.
Rather, the arrangement would be mutually beneficial. "If you bought a $100 book, [the bookstore would] give you $50 [at buy-back]," Gill said. "Then [the bookstore would] sell it used for $75. You save half your money and the next student saves a quarter of theirs."
According to Gill, the buyback program is mutually beneficial because it allows students to save money by both selling used books, and buying them for lower prices. "You're not going to accomplish this anywhere else," he said.
"[Buyback] has grown, we're continuing to see growth, and with a concerted effort by both the students and faculty to ensure that the book orders are in on time, we can help everyone save," he said.
The Senate's compilation of booklists will be available before the bookstore accesses the information to determine its buyback policy.
"We hope that we will be successful enough that this will be continued and become a tradition," Valentine said.
Professors are encouraged to e-mail their book selections to tuftsbooklist@gmail.com in order to participate in the project.
