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Classifieds.19
; August 27,1990University of Nebraska-Lincoln Voi790 No72
Stores not to blame for text prices, managers say
By Lee Rood
Staff Reporter
It’s got just about everything any
one ever wanted to know about
biology - and lots of colorful
graphs and pictures to boot - but can
students afford to pay $54 for a biol
ogy textbook? Do they have a choice?
Students at the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln and across the Big
Eight are paying higher overall prices
for their textbooks again this year.
Bookstore textbook managers say
mW Course: Publisher's /
mg Title: Price UNL Nebr. j
MM I “Conceptual Physics” $35.00 $46,20 $46.65 /
|Jf “Puntos De Partida” $36.50 $36.10 S36.50
Anthropology 100
“Culture, People & Nature” S29.50 S38.95 $39.30
Wm\ “A History of Western Society” $23.07 $30.50 S30.75
1||||' Political Science 100 \
f|i\ “American Government” $32.56 $44.30 S43.30 \
|S\ Biology 101 \
IpA “Biology” $40.76 $54.80 S54.35 \
there is not much they can do about it.
_ Textbook managers at seven Big
Eight bookstores said higher produc
tion costs, better technology and cor
porate takeovers of some large pub
lishing houses contributed to a steady
increase in textbook prices during the
past several years.
James Bellman, textbook manager
for Nebraska Bookstore, said he had
seen a steady increase in book prices
over the last 20 years.
Bellman recalled a book he pur
chased for about $13.95 in 1971 when
he was a freshman college student in
Minnesota. That book now sells for
$48.95 and. Bellman said, similar
increases are not uncommon.
Gwen Behrends, textbook man
ager at the University Bookstore,
estimated that the price of textbooks
went up about 10 percent this fall.
Behrends said she had witnessed
similar increases every semester for
the last three years.
The increases, Behrends and other
textbook managers said, are not the
fault of university bookstores. Behrends
and the other seven managers said the
markup percentage they add to the
publisher’s price tor a given textbook
had remained steady for the past sev
eral years.
All officials at the seven Big Eight
schools interviewed said they marked
up their texts between 20 and 25 per
cent to pay for overhead costs such as
rent, shipping, utilities and employee
salaries.
Bookstore officials at the Univer
sity of Missouri could not be reached
for comment.
Managers agreed that publishers
generally were responsible for the
higher prices. Publishers not only are
paying more to produce and market a
textbook today, but arc spending more
on technology such as color repro
duction. In addition, the managers
-4 4
There have got to be big
profits there, just got to
be.
Olsen
CU textbook manager
-99
said, publishers are beginning to
supplement textbooks with expensive
study guides and computer software.
Cece Olsen, who has been a text
book manager at the University of
Colorado for the past 30 years, said
many companies have found the
publishing business to be profitable.
Olsen and other managers said they
had noticed that many publishers have
become victims of major takeovers in
recent months. That, Olsen said, is
evidence enough that the business is
lucrative.
“There have got to be big profits
there, just got to be,’’ Olsen said.
Behrends said some publishers
simply choose to charge more than
others for the same amount of techni- .»
cal matter.
“So the same type of books will
cost more from one publisher to an
other,’’ she said.
Other publishers control the mai
ket on certain types of texts because
their subject matter is highly special
ized, Behrends said.
Math, engineering, textile design
and actuarial science books arc the
most expensive, Behrends said. One
engineering text — the most expen
sive book at the University Bookstore
— has a price tag of S140.
Students who think textbooks fora
particular course are too expensive
may want to speak with their profes
sors.
Behrends said that while many
professors were concerned about how
much their texts cost, others don’t
seem to care.
“A lot of times, I’ll have a profes
sor call me and say: ‘I’m considering
three or four titles, can you check the
prices?’’’ she said. “But some really
don’t cane at all.’’
Iraqi actions hit home with Arab students on campus
By Ryan Steoves
Staff Reporter
Although Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait has been
condemned worldwide, the invasion has
found champions among many Arab students
i
attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Most disliked Kuwait, saying its govern
mem was arrogant, treated its foreign residents
as second-class citizens, abused the appoint
ments system, overproduced oil and was too
stubborn in demanding war loans from its pro
tector Iraq. They also say Iraq has a historical
claim to Kuwait
Although their opinions differ on U.S. in
volvement, some students say it isn’t as black
and white as a battle between Saddam and the
United Slates. The students sec Israel as an
integral link in the crisis. They say the Jewish
state wants to use the situation to farther ex
pand its borders.
Those are radical views to Americans, who
see a belligerent Iraqi aggressor as the prob
lem.
Arab students are aware their opinions are
extreme to Americans.
Many refused interviews and some demanded
anonymity. They say they are afraid *>.- some of
their government and the possible threat to
their families back home, but most of the
reaction of students and citizens in Lincoln.
One Arab student who refused to reveal his
name or homeland says he was afraid of a
recurrence of the events of 1979, when bricks
slammed through the windows of some Ira
nian-Amencans during the hostage crisis.
“Students have to know that what goes on
there (in the Middle East) has nothing to do
with us here,’ the student repeated many limes.
“We came here to study, not to Fight.”
The student also says Americans should live
up to their belief in free speech and tolerate
different views.
Recent events in the United Stales confirm
their fears. In San Francisco, a professor who
told a newspaper he favored a negotiated set
dement in die crisis received a death threat.
Arab-Americans also have complained of un
fair stereotypes surfacing.
Arab students say the government — which
some call run more by an association of mer
•- bants than leaders — is marked by arrogance
and greed. This is what got it into trouble, they
say. Kuwait produced too much oil, pushing
prices down and costing Iraq millions in lost
revenue.
The criticism shows part of the problem in
the Middle East. Even though the region is
abundant with oil, its distribution is not homo
geneous - some countries have it, others do
not.
The unequal wealdi distribution and sec
ond-class status felt by Arab foreigners in some
countries discourages the Arab people, who
See STUDENTS on 6
rress needs more space
Growth spurs relocation
By Jennifer O’Cilka
Senior Reporter
University of Nebraska Press
employees will have the el
bow room they need to fulfill
the press’ expansion mission when
plans for more space become reality,
officials said.
Willis Regier, press director, said
administrators told him more space
would be assigned to the press. The
new location has not been identified.
John Benson, director of Institu
tional Research Planning and Fiscal
Analysis, said his office was provid
’ tng information on several locations.
Benson said he was not sure how
[ long the study would take or when the
press would have a new home.
Regier said more space has been
needed for a long time.
The press lacked space because it
has grown faster than expected, Regier
said. With sales quadrupling in the
past decade, employees lacked the
room they needed to do their work.
The press “is suffering from its
own prosperity,” Regier said. “It has
been successful in doing what the
administration hoped - growing. It
has grown at a faster rate than pre
dicted ..
Crowding of employees was one
problem resulting from the rapid
growth, Rcgier said.
“They’ve had to double, triple up
in offices. That automatically leads
to all the syndromes of overcrowd
ing: inefficiency, irritability, lack of
access to facilities like the telephone,”
he said.
The University of Nebraska-Lin
coln-based press has grown to be the
second largest state university press
in the nation, Regier said. Ten years
ago, the Nebraska press was about the
26lh largest
“I think that the press and the
university have unlimited potential,
but in limited space that potential will
be boxed in until” sufficient space is
available, Rcgier said.
The press needs at least an addi
tional 3,000 square feet of space for
the current employees, Regier said.
The press now is housed in 7,000
square feel on the third lloor of Ne
braska Hall.
But Regier said the press needs
about 14,000 square feet of space
“for the work we need to get done.”
Regier said the optimum plan would
include more than 20,000 square feet
of space so the press could “fulfill the
campus and public functions appro
priate to a press our size and a univer
sity our size.”
See PRESS on 8
»_hiwit iwwMMgaa
Sophomore Alan Hodges tries to slam one over the net during#al°gameno?^wcHman*°
volleyball at a sand pit near AbeJ/Sandoz residence halls. Hodges and three others braved
high temperatures Sunday afternoon to play the game.
