As Emily Westergaard checked out the books for her biology class at the Elgin Community College bookstore Monday, the cash register took no time at all to add up the damage to her checking account — a little over $400 for just three hardcover books.
“I didn’t imagine it would cost that much.” the incoming freshman said.
But as the cost of college textbooks spirals to ever more stratospheric heights, ECC Bookstore Director Kelly Strossner reported to the ECC Board of Trustees this week, the store has used a variety of weapons to lower the pain to students like Westergaard. These range from buying back and reselling used books to renting books (new or used) to even selling unbound chapters taken from within a book whose other chapters are not being used by one’s professor.
Strossner said the latest initiative seeks to cushion the expense of texts used in 22 of the college’s Office Administrator Technology (OAT) courses, which teach how to use programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
A college bookstore experiences “busy seasons” that are shorter and more intense than almost any other type of retailer. Strossner said the real rush to buy won’t start until next week, as fall-semester classes begin. But leading up to the cash registers, stanchions and ropes already mark off a winding-back-and-forth series of Walt Disney World-style waiting lines to keep next week’s crowd in order.
Strossner said one proven way of fighting costs is the store’s buyback program. A student finishing a course sells his book back to the store. The store then sells the used book to a new student taking the same course the following semester.
She said the amount the seller gets back varies from book to book but averages 35 percent of the original price. Some titles bring the seller up to 50 percent.
“In the past four years the buyback program has returned $1,120,651 to students,” she said.
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Besides selling new and used books, the store rents both new and used textbooks. An increasing number of publishers make their content available for sale online. Some teachers have put together in-house-created custom course materials available online, and some use “open source” materials that a student can find for free online.
Strossner said the rental program started in fall 2007.
The store also has made some texts available as eBooks in two pilot programs. One, started in 2010, allows texts from Cengage Learning and Follett Higher Education to be downloaded to students using HP netbook computers. The other, started in fall 2012, allows eBooks in nursing to be downloaded from Elsevier Health Science and Lippincott.
However, Strossner said most nursing students want to buy the printed version of their texts.
In some cases in which a teacher wants to use only one part of a book, the store has been able to order a looseleaf edition, “unbundle” the needed section and sell only it, she said.
ECC’s latest project, being tried as a pilot project this fall, uses something called an “academic content licensing model.” The pilot program is using that only for 22 courses in Office Administrator Technology.
In the past, Strossner said, students in an Officer Administrator Technology course would have to pay an average of $237 to buy both the print version of their book and an online access code for course material. By working with the publisher, Cengage Learning, and ECC’s OAT faculty, she said, the college has arranged for a student to access the materials via ECC’s D2L digital network for just $85.
Meanwhile, Strossner said, changing technology and business customs have been stealing away the near monopoly that a college bookstore used to have on its campus. Amazon offers textbooks for sale over the Internet. A company called Chegg offers online rentals and even online academic advising.
During Monday’s board meeting Trustee Jeff Meyer asked whether the store has tried to make up for eroding textbook sales by offering what it does still have as almost a monopoly — ECC-branded cheerware clothing, memorabilia, etc. — more aggressively.
Strossner said that two years ago her staff set up a sales table during a commencement ceremony to sell things like ECC mugs and alumni merchandise. But “we didn’t sell anything,” she said.
ECC leaders expect the bookstore to be self-sustaining. In fact, a guideline approved by the board of trustees earlier this year calls for the store to return a profit of 9 percent of its sales that can be used to support money-losing extracurricular operations at the college.
And it has been meeting that goal almost exactly. In Fiscal Year 2014, the college’s business and finance department reports, the store had operating revenues of $4,595,902 and made a profit of $550,763.
The bookstore staff’s push to save costs even extends to using volunteer labor. During the store’s rush season Elgin’s Golden K Club, made up of senior-citizen Kiwanis members, provides volunteers to help organize the crowds of shoppers. The volunteers hold onto shoppers’ backpacks while the owners are in the store, help process book buybacks and explain where shoppers should go. In return, Strossner says, the college donates some money to the Golden Ks’ charity efforts.