UNIVERSITYbookstore
Memorandum
To: University Academic Community
From: Tony Glaab, Associate Manager – UBS Allendale
Re: Textbook requisition deadlines
Date: March 30, 2007
This memorandum is in response to several inquiries I have received from instructors and academic department coordinators regarding our textbook requisition deadlines. University Bookstore is dedicated to providing superior service and offering competitive pricing to the academic community. This is precisely why we ask for textbook requisitions when we do.
We are cognizant of increasing costs—including textbooks—in higher education, and we do everything we can to lower the price of course materials for students. Buyback is our primary means of making textbooks more affordable by increasing the availability of used books. Students save money during the initial purchase of used books, and also have the opportunity to recover some of their financial investment when they sell books at the end of the semester, thereby lowering the net cost of their books.
When faculty order books according to the established due dates, we have more time to procure used textbooks from wholesale companies and partner stores, saving students twenty-five percent or more versus the price of purchasing new books. UBS is proud to announce that 48% of all textbook sales for winter 2007 semester were used books; that is almost 20% higher than the national average.[1]There is a direct correlation between the number of faculty orders that are submitted by deadline and the overall cost of textbooks to students.
Furthermore, when timelines are observed, the bookstore staff has more time to research and identify potential problems with textbook orders. We can then communicate these to faculty, and allow more time for selection of replacement textbooks. We understand need for adequate time to evaluate textbook selection, but we also want to emphasize the impact that late orders have on the ordering process.
Not only do we want to make books affordable to students, we also want to make them available as early as possible. Students are increasingly researching and purchasing textbooks long before the beginning of the semester.However, our textbook requisition deadlines remain the same as in the past, and we hope to meet customer demand through the increased efficiency of our ordering process, rather than by altering these dates:
Spring/SummerFebruary 25
FallMarch 25
WinterOctober 25
We would be delighted to further discuss this personally or present this information at departmental staff meetings. Please contact me if you are interested.
[1] National Association of College Stores, 2004-2005