Northwest Missouri State University - Tower Yearbook (Maryville, MO)

Page 25 text:

020 021 Transporting textbooks back to th«r shefving locations at Textbook Services, Allie Boehm struggles to contain the heavy load. Textbook Services was open during finals week with extended hours to accompany students schedules before they returned home, photo by Meredilh Currence

Page 24 text:

Rented reading Textbook distribution program keeps costs low for students. Leading prospective students across the University landscape, Stephen Terry was always amozed by the glow in the young people ' s faces when he says the magic four- letter word: Free. Unlike most higher education institutions across the country, The University offered a textbook rental system that alleviated the burden of paying the notional average of $853 per year for books. While a $5 fee per credit hour is assessed to students ' overall tuition account, Terry said it beat the alternative of paying for new books each trimester. I ' ve looked at graduate schools on the West Coast and the East Coast, and textbooks alone cost $1,000 to $2,500, said Terry, who served as a student ambassador on campus. And at the end of the semester, when you go to sell them back, you can ' t even get half the price that you bought the books for. Indeed, the fact that students did not incur such price gouging for books they might or might not use is music to their ears-and their parents ' ears. Whenever I give a tour and tell students books are free, their faces light up, and their parents always ask, ' They don ' t have to pay for them? I ' m going bock to school, ' Terry said. Within the Mabel Cook Admissions Office, Jeremy Waldeier recognized these unique reactions. He was familiar with them because his mom told him about the program when he was searching for a university to attend. As associate director of admissions, Waldeier realized how right she was. I didn ' t see the true benefit of the program at the time, but once my mom sold it to me, it really played a big part on my selection to come here, Waldeier said. During the 2004-05 academic year, students paid nationwide $853, an increase of $200 over the past five years, according to a report by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. Since 1994, wholesale prices charged by textbook publishers increased 62 percent, according to the report, Lucky for Northwest students, they do not hove to sign up for more student loans or ask their parents for more money to get the required textbooks. It ' s awesome, because b eing a college student, and working at places in town for minimum wage, the last thing you want to do is buy books, Terry said. Writer | Pete Gutschenritter Designer | Ashlee Mejia Textbook check-in Step 1 ; Books ore collected and the student provides his her student ID number. Step 2: Barcodes are scanned from the books to enter as returned on the system. Step 3: Books ore sorted and returned to the shelves for storage.

Page 26 text:

Powered bypeHets Cost-saving initiative also has environmental benefits. Around ihe bend of Ninth Street by Campus challenges. We had a group of people with deter- Sofety mounds of material slowly piled up spilling mination and enthusiasm to see if something could from a huge semi-truck. be developed. Although piquing the interest of the casual Using internal funds, the University constructed passerby, most students didn ' t know the heaps of a $700,000 addition to its existing processing fo- sometimes odorous material were responsible for cility to expedite the pellet-producing process. The the steam wafting from their heaters. Biomass Processing Center will be repaid over nine People see trucks carrying stuff that has a cer- years by savings incurred as result of the program, tain amount of odor but not everyone understands Northwest obtained a U.S. patent for its waste- I what exactly we do in our Alter- native Energy Project, Provost Kichoon Yang said. After two weeks of sub-zero temperatures in the winter of 1977-78 coupled with a natural gas cut-off from the utility com- pany, the Universi- ty decided strides needed to be taken to decrease petroleum-based energy source de- pendence. The University first used wood to-energy production process that involves separating animal waste into liquid and solid components. The solids were mixed with dry agricultural feedstocks and the mixture is then transported to the processing plant for pelletization into fuel source. University officials awaited word if increased state funding will allow Northwest to imple- ment an alternative-energy-in- spired curriculum. Administrators hoped to offer a bachelor of sci- ence degree in nanotechnology, a master ' s degree in biotechnol- ogy and o bachelor of science degree and master ' s degree in alternative energy. Mike Bellamy, associate pro- fessor of chemistry and physics. As the wind spins the propellers of the wind mill at the Uni- versity Farm, energy is produced as a part of the alternate energy project Waste from the livestock is also pelletized and burned helped generate the proposed thesamevrayasthecampus ' recyclables.p iotobf Trevor Hoi.es curriculum Ond believes the new chips OS a renew able, clean-burning alternate energy source, de- major would help produce experts in converting creasing the use of oil and natural gas from 100 biomass into a valuable energy source, thus in- percent to 35 percent. From August 1982 to July creasing students employobility the high-demand 2000, the project saved 500,000 gallons of oil field, and $4 million, according to Ray Courter, vice Graduates would be able to go into businesses president for Finance and Support Services. Pelletized paper and animal waste-3,000 tons of paper pellets and four tons of animal waste-also contributed to energy savings. The millions saved helped fund 41 electronic classrooms on campus from 1994 to 2000 . Court- and conduct feasibility studies on what energy op- tions ore viable. They will be able to see the big picture, Bel- lamy said. They will know a businesses options and how the most money can be saved. University administrators also hoped to use the er also said 60 percent of the saved funds was program as a recruiting tool. Being one of the only allocated into other academic budgets to improve universities in the area to provide such a program, instruction and provide scholarships. they hoped the program would attract students na- This is not a simple thing to do, Courter said, tionwide. It ' s easier to burn natural gas, but it ' s worth the Writer | Stephanie StangI Designer | Paula Eldred Another load goes into the grinder at the Pellet Plant as J Scott raises his scoop. Workers sorted through recyclabi f make sure metal or other foreign objects that could possibt) J the grinder would be dumped, photo by Trevor Hoyes