Get green for the environment and for your wallet
Melanie Bush
Issue date: 1/15/09 Section: Campus
The economy and the environment are the two terms that sum up what bookstores are using as bait to catch students and bring them in at the beginning of this new semester. These timely topics help lure students in not only with the idea of restoring money to their post-holiday cash-depleted wallets, but also that they are doing something good for the environment. The SLCC Bookstore encourages students to recycle and sell their books back to their bookstore by reeling them in with the green factor.
"Do something good for you and the environment," their flyers tout around campus. PJ's College Books offered a $10 in-store credit at the end of last semester, which may have enticed some students to take advantage of early textbook buying. Not all students want to give back, though. Some prefer to keep them for a reference or maybe a future library. The stark reality is that the text will be obsolete in just a few years.
Class packets, which are compiled and sold at the SLCC bookstores, contain information on a specific class or additional data for a class that professors require for their students. These class packets that cost between two and six dollars may be the only "texts" that students cannot resell back to the bookstore.
SLCC students Shandi Kelbaugh and Kristeen Judd are trying to find the most cost effective way to get their education. Both cosmetology students, they are required to buy books for $150, a small fee compared to the $1000 needed for tools and supplies. Kristeen will purchase the pre-made kit either on eBay or at the college bookstore, while Shandi decided to make her own kit by purchasing the items separately at different beauty supply stores. Though their major may not be the one that will revolutionize the medium in which textbooks are brought to students, maybe one day they will benefit from digital learning that will take less of a toll on natural resources. Most students, however, are just a little leery when it comes down to that final action of pulling out their desired method of payment at the cash register, and maybe well so.
When asked what the most expensive book was at PJ's College Books the store employee answered without hesitation: The Project Resource Manual CSI Manual of Practice, a mere $225. With the economy the way it is, a $116 math book quickly adds up and a used $124 human anatomy book can really bend one out of shape. Full time students have that figure multiplied four or five times.
"Do something good for you and the environment," their flyers tout around campus. PJ's College Books offered a $10 in-store credit at the end of last semester, which may have enticed some students to take advantage of early textbook buying. Not all students want to give back, though. Some prefer to keep them for a reference or maybe a future library. The stark reality is that the text will be obsolete in just a few years.
Class packets, which are compiled and sold at the SLCC bookstores, contain information on a specific class or additional data for a class that professors require for their students. These class packets that cost between two and six dollars may be the only "texts" that students cannot resell back to the bookstore.
SLCC students Shandi Kelbaugh and Kristeen Judd are trying to find the most cost effective way to get their education. Both cosmetology students, they are required to buy books for $150, a small fee compared to the $1000 needed for tools and supplies. Kristeen will purchase the pre-made kit either on eBay or at the college bookstore, while Shandi decided to make her own kit by purchasing the items separately at different beauty supply stores. Though their major may not be the one that will revolutionize the medium in which textbooks are brought to students, maybe one day they will benefit from digital learning that will take less of a toll on natural resources. Most students, however, are just a little leery when it comes down to that final action of pulling out their desired method of payment at the cash register, and maybe well so.
When asked what the most expensive book was at PJ's College Books the store employee answered without hesitation: The Project Resource Manual CSI Manual of Practice, a mere $225. With the economy the way it is, a $116 math book quickly adds up and a used $124 human anatomy book can really bend one out of shape. Full time students have that figure multiplied four or five times.

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