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Nearly half of the books sold this semester at the University of Maine’s Bookstore were used, saving students approximately $170,000 more than last year.
The Bookstore’s director, Bill Hockensmith, says it was a team effort to save students this money.
“Part of it had to do with technical things on how we did our ordering to get more used books from companies,” Hockensmith said. “But the number one reason for these changes is the superior responses we got from the faculty with getting their book orders in on time and even earlier than in the past.”
The Bookstore sold about $415,000 in used books in December 2001 and January 2002. Since Hockensmith’s arrival about six months ago from West Texas A&M, this number increased to about $780,000 worth of used books sold this past December and January, according to Hockensmith.
Buy-back was up about 25 percent as well, which means students were able to sell back more of their books at the end of the semester.
One of the major changes Hockensmith initiated this year was encouraging UMaine’s faculty to submit their book orders earlier.
“Last year, less than 5 percent of book orders were in on time, but this year it was closer to 40 percent,” he said.
“We were able to go out to the faculty and say, ‘this is why your students are paying so much money for books,’” Brian Parker, a Bookstore staff member and first-year English major, said. This pushed faculty to help with the Bookstore’s goal of saving students money.
Currently, UMaine’s Bookstore has the second cheapest books of all college bookstores in New England. Boston College has the cheapest, according to an unofficial ranking by used book companies.
“By next January we want to be No. 1,” he said. “I plan on putting a wager on that with the director of Boston College. The more the faculty get their orders in on time, the more used books that will be available in the fall.”
The date faculty will need to have their book orders in for the fall of 2003 is April 2, according to Hockensmith.
Hockensmith described the book scenario as students who rush to get to the Bookstore early in the semester to get as many used books as possible. He said this is the same scenario for the Bookstore itself, in that it tries to get to the used book companies early to purchase the most used books for students. The Bookstore cannot process its orders without the faculty’s help of providing book requests on time, Hockensmith said.
In this most recent case, UMaine got in earlier and was more persistent, which meant many more used books on the shelves and a lot more money in students’ pockets.
The Bookstore’s staff began its pursuit of cheaper books by contacting faculty members via e-mail and telephone messages, describing the importance of getting their book orders in early, Hockensmith said. They also contacted several used book companies far in advance to ensure the number of books they would need for students.
The staff tried to educate the faculty, Hockensmith said.
“Once they realized what was going on, they got on board,” he said. “A lot of it was that they didn’t know the impact of getting their orders in on time, but because of their efforts we were really able to get a lot more used books.”
“Our faculty had a lot to do with it and I really want them to get the credit,” Hockensmith said. “The timely book orders are the key tool because it allows us to make better use of the used book suppliers.”
Hockensmith said he had many reasons for pushing his goal of purchasing cheaper used books for students, but one main reason was that books are expensive to begin with.
“As many students drop out because of their checkbook balance as their grade point average,” Hockensmith said. “If a student can save $100, my hunch is that’s about equal to one week of labor. You have to consider that. Most of the students at UMaine need that financial break.”
“Students seemed much more pleased this year and the Bookstore staff was very pleased about that,” he said. “We want to make students happier.”
Hockensmith said he is confident UMaine’s Bookstore and faculty will do the job right in the future, so students may enjoy cheaper costs.
“We’re just hoping in the next semesters we can get everybody in on the knowledge that early book orders mean cheaper prices,” Parker said. “We’re definitely hopeful that we can repeat our success for this next semester.”
