Editor,
As a senior at UNM I am familiar with the biannual task of purchasing textbooks. Like many students, I am aware of the racket involved in textbook prices. I am always astonished at how quickly paperbacks and other low quality books required for classes add up and soon leave my student account bankrupt. Like many others, I have in recent years tried my best to boycott the University Bookstore and purchase books elsewhere. However, this semester I was forced to buy a book I needed almost immediately. This was a paperback novel, nothing special, but required reading nonetheless. I scanned the shelf for used copies, and to my luck there were several. I picked up a copy, one of those discolored vintage paperbacks that you pick up at the thrift store or used book store for fifty cents or a dollar. Well, you bet it wasn’t a dollar, but the more curious fact was that the original price, now 30 years old, was still on the book. In the late 70s when this book was published it was $3.75. What caught my eye next was what the Bookstore was charging for this very “used” book — $9.95! Criminal. Where else in the world of books would this be possible than the fantastic land of university bookstores? In fact, why not market the University as a type of fun-land amusement park, where you have to pay top penny for all the required materials, top penny for junk food and pay to print. What exactly does tuition cover? Oh, that’s right, I forgot — it’s just the admission to this amusement park they call an academic institution.
Antal Maurer
UNM student
