Pittsburg State University - Kanza Yearbook (Pittsburg, KS)

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The scene is Follett Bookstore at Pittsburg State University. A long line of students stand waiting to return books from last semester. “What do you mean I can only get $1.25 for this book! It cost me $20 when I bought it this semester 1 shouts one angry student. Not an unusual occurence at the bookstore. Unfortunately, what students do not realize is, that most of the time it is not the fault of the bookstore that they can not get their money for returned books. Once an instructor changes books, the bookstore will not buy the old book back. “When the University was running the bookstore we used to buy back books even when the instructor was not using them anymore. We also went $17,000 in the hole one year,” said Jack Overman, Student Union director. The bookstore used to be run by the University. It is now run by Follett, but is overseen by the Student Union. “The last five years that the University ran the bookstore we went in the hole every year,” said Overman. 18—Bookstore “When Follett took over we spent several days doing inventory and found out that we had $50,000 in books that we had bought back and couldn't use,” he said. According to Overman, PSU, not Follett, sets the mark up on books. So if anyone is ripping the students off, it is the University. One example of this is the Applied Grammar book which was written by William Duffy, associate professor of English, and is printed by the PSU duplication department. “The manual is mine. We used to have it duplicated by the English department and I gave it free to the students. The time came when we were no longer able to do that so I went to Dr. Baird and told him I felt the students would be happy to pay for the cost of having it duplicated ' said Duffy. According to Duffy, the original cost of the manual was around $2. “The purpose was to provide the students with a better quality outline at a minimal cost. Neither duplicating or the University were supposed to make kidding a profit,” Duffy said. This year the cost of the manual was $9.15. After students complained, Duffy began investigating the costs. Overman got a breakdown of the exact costs from duplicating: Printing 3375 copies with 135 originals $87.75; Collating material $16.87; Punching three holes $13.50; Shrink wrapping $19 for a total of $137.12. The books were then priced ac- cordingly: $137,12 divided by 25 copies came to $5.49 per copy; 20 per cent markup from selling price $1.37; three ring notebook binder $2.29 which came to a total of $9.15 per copy. THE LINES NEVER SEEM TO END at the end of the semester when students waif in lines to sell back books. Richard Secrest and Nancy Batie are two of the students who made it to the front of the line, hoping all their books will be bought back, —photo by Kyle Cleveland You've got to be

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Ealing out has its pitfalls Let’s go get something to eat!” That’s a frequent statement made by students when the munchies hit them. And fast food restaurants seem to be the favorite place to go for hungry students who want to grab something to eat. There are many fast food places in Pittsburg, and they offer a variety of food. Whatever your preference in food is, most likely there will be someplace in town that offers if. Endless hamburger spots such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Burger Shop, and Barney’s have the typical food that go along with beef sand- wiches. Other places specialize in Mexican food, such as Taco Bell and Taco Sabroso, or in chicken or fish, such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and Long John Silver’s. Most of these places have both dine in and carry out service, and some even have drive through windows for faster service. Fast service seems to be one of the main reasons that students go to fast food restaurants to eat. “When I'm hungry, I don’t want to have to wait around for my food,” said Tim Clark, Overland Park senior. “That’s why I go to McDonald’s a lot. I can just drive through and have my food in a minute without ever leaving LIGHTS ALONG THE STRIP not only provide a colorful collage, but several fast places to eat out. —photo by Kyle Cleveland the car.” “I only have an hour for lunch between classes, so I have to go someplace where I can get in and out fast,” said Jerry Armstrong, Mulvane sophomore. “I like to get off campus to eat, because I like a change of scenery, and a fast food place seems to be the logical place to go.” “I always stop at McDonald’s on my way out of town on weekends,” said Jackie Carbon, Mound City freshman. “That place is good about putting their food in containers so I can drive and eat at the same time, especially if I am in a hurry.” Another reason why fast food restaurants are so popular is that they usually mean lower prices. A person can get a full meal at most of these places for under five dollars. And students who are counting every penny they spend are willing to sacrifice the quality for the lower price. “I don’t expect their food to be as good as full service restaurants,” said Tim McCaffrey, Shawnee junior. “They don’t spend as much time preparing it, so they can’t compare with restaurants such as Jim’s Steak House that have the time and facilities to cook your dinner the right way. “They probably use cheaper ingredients too,” he added. “That’s why they can afford to charge a lower price.” But some students have found that fast food restaurants do not always go hand-in-hand with low prices. “I don’t think they are any cheaper than any other restaurants in town that offers the same type of food,” said Janet Wilson, Leoti junior. “People just think they are getting a good deal, because when they compare the menus at fast food restaurants with other places, they see lower prices. “They don’t take into consideration that most quoted prices in full service restaurants are for full meals instead of single items,” she said. “If they would add up the total items as a single price at a fast food restaurant, they would probably find that food isn’t so cheap there after all.” One of the disadvantages of fast food restaurants is the limited service from employees. “I feel like I’m watching an assembly line when I place an order,” said Kurt Pickett, Burlingame senior. “The service is very impersonal.” Regardless of the pitfalls of eating at a fast food place, most students take advantage of the many restaurants in the area for a quick meal at one time or another, and chances are that they will be in- creasing in number as the world increases in technology and the time- saving mania.—by Sheri Johnson TACO BELL IS A FAVORITE stopping place for Kathy Dody and Connie Rentz, as they share a late night meal. —photo by Dot Koehler Fas Wood—17

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“We’ve gone all the way from giving the material to the students to stealing from them,” said Duffy. After investigating the costs, it was found that each student who bought the Applied Grammar manual could receive a 76 cent refund because the manuals were not shrink wrapped. According to Overman, the bookstore is blamed for books that come in late when actually it is often the fault of the instructor because they don’t turn in their orders soon enough. “We also have problems with estimations. We have $8,848 tied up in books that are setting on the shelves because the psychology department ordered more books than they have students enrolled. At 15 per cent interest that costs the bookstore a lot of money,” he said. Overman also said that students get upset because they don’t understand the bookstore’s policy for buying back used books. According to Verlen Kresin, director of the University bookstore, a student is paid half of the list price of a book when it is returned for re-sale. The book is marked up 25 per cent above the buy-back price for re-sale as a used book. This pricing policy continues until the book has been resold three times; at that time the book remains at the last used book sale price. Kresin said that the bookstore actually makes more money on used books and would prefer to sell them rather than new ones and does make them readily available. Overman said that the only reason the bookstore won’t buy back a book if it is still being used by the in- structor is if the bookstore already has the number of books the in- structor has said he will need the following semester. Although it may seem to students that the bookstore is making a killing, in actuality they are not. Books are susceptible to inflation too.— by Janet Stites AT THE BOOK RETURN TABLE, Jeff Cook waits while Verlen Kresin checks the master ' A to see if his books can be bought back.— photo by Kyle Cleveland WAITING IN LONG LINES, students usually wait for hours to sell back books. Con- sequently, they will receive half the price they paid or find the book won’t be bought back at all. —photo by Kyle Cleveland