2008 Woodie Awards
Faculty response to rental program is low
Sarah Sommer
Issue date: 8/25/08 Section: News
The new Textbook Rental program at Volunteer State Community College will be pushed back a semester.
Textbooks for the average student can cost a couple hundred dollars a semester and can end up being a huge problem for those who can not afford them.
However, a new program approved could have taken the edge off of those high textbook bills this semester.
The new program would allow students to rent their textbooks at a lower cost instead of buying them each semester.
The rental program allows a cheaper alternative but students would not receive any money back when they return their books.
Textbook Brokers, located across the street from the Vol State Campus, does not rent textbooks giving the Vol State Bookstore more options for students.
"Not every book is available to be rented, if a book is not bundled and is used for multiple semesters then it would be available to be rented," said Kathy Johnson, the Assistant Vice President in Business and Finance.
Bundling means that the book would come with other components such as CD's and workbooks that can only be used once or has a key code.
"[Renting] would be killer," one anonymous student said. "It is a bummer that it won't be available."
According to Johnson, in order for a book to be on the rental list, it is up to the teachers to submit it.
While this seems like a great plan financially for students, it will not be present this semester.
"I was naturally disappointed that there wasn't a stronger faculty response to the program," said Robert Moon, a member of the committee that helped create the textbook rental program.
Moon also said that all "the policies were in place" for the program to go in to effect this semester.
According to Moon, at the beginning of the year the Vol State Bookstore sends out a list of books available to be rented to the department chairs and from there the teachers and department chairs would fill out a rental agreement to allow their books to be rented.
However, the lack of cooperation from the faculty has caused this program to be unavailable till next semester.
"The best I can do is to hope there is a new response next semester," he added.
Textbooks for the average student can cost a couple hundred dollars a semester and can end up being a huge problem for those who can not afford them.
However, a new program approved could have taken the edge off of those high textbook bills this semester.
The new program would allow students to rent their textbooks at a lower cost instead of buying them each semester.
The rental program allows a cheaper alternative but students would not receive any money back when they return their books.
Textbook Brokers, located across the street from the Vol State Campus, does not rent textbooks giving the Vol State Bookstore more options for students.
"Not every book is available to be rented, if a book is not bundled and is used for multiple semesters then it would be available to be rented," said Kathy Johnson, the Assistant Vice President in Business and Finance.
Bundling means that the book would come with other components such as CD's and workbooks that can only be used once or has a key code.
"[Renting] would be killer," one anonymous student said. "It is a bummer that it won't be available."
According to Johnson, in order for a book to be on the rental list, it is up to the teachers to submit it.
While this seems like a great plan financially for students, it will not be present this semester.
"I was naturally disappointed that there wasn't a stronger faculty response to the program," said Robert Moon, a member of the committee that helped create the textbook rental program.
Moon also said that all "the policies were in place" for the program to go in to effect this semester.
According to Moon, at the beginning of the year the Vol State Bookstore sends out a list of books available to be rented to the department chairs and from there the teachers and department chairs would fill out a rental agreement to allow their books to be rented.
However, the lack of cooperation from the faculty has caused this program to be unavailable till next semester.
"The best I can do is to hope there is a new response next semester," he added.
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