College Store on Maple Road Fights Bookstore Monopoly

UB students may finally start seeing the textbook price tide turn in their favor in coming semesters.

Tom Jacobs, the store manager of the College Store on Maple Road, has petitioned UB's administration, department chairs and individual professors for access to textbook information for every course taught at UB.

"I want to carry what the students need," Jacobs said. "We've also been working with the Student Association officers George Pape and Anthony Burgio, who are behind me on this, but they're getting the runaround from the university."

Neither Pape nor Burgio returned calls from The Spectrum.

Jacobs is requesting a master list of all textbook orders, which at this point does not exist. UB administrators remain skeptical of the idea, and said creation of such a list would create delays and inflexibility.

"It would take three months - greater delay - and more confusion," Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Kerry Grant said. Grant added that if editions change after orders are placed on the master list, faculty may not be able to re-order a new edition promptly.

Jacobs is armed with legal precedent, following a 2001 decision involving SUNY Albany and a private, off-campus bookstore, which sued the university or access to the master list of all textbook orders.

The difference between the Albany precedent and UB's situation is that Albany had a centrally published and maintained textbook list. UB does not.

Instead, individual faculty at UB have the responsibility to place orders themselves, and the right to place orders wherever they so choose.

Historically, most orders are placed with the University Bookstore on Lee Road. Jacobs argued that if several stores are able to carry the same books for courses, the benefit will not only be for his store, but for the students, as competition-driven pricing will make books cheaper.

Grant said, however, that the university has already taken steps to ensure competition. Grant drafted a letter in August 2002 to the faculty asking them to release orders to both the University Bookstore and the College Store.

"We had gone far beyond what was required in point of law and point of spirit in getting the College Store established," Grant said.

Jacobs said his business has not seen much improvement since the letter.

According to Greg Neumann, the director of the University Bookstore, orders this semester at his store remained the same despite the letter.

Jacobs has visited with faculty and officials from various academic departments, and said the history department is making progress towards sending equal adoptions to both major book outlets.

Tamara Thornton, chair of the history department, said she is glad professors provide orders to The College Store, but she would not want to maintain a master list of book orders in her department.

"We know books are expensive, and of course we want to keep the book costs down for students," she said. "But it's not my job to oversee professors and how they order books. If we had to get orders to 15 places it's an administrational nightmare."

Grant said the administration is "not at all inclined to see merit in taking that responsibility on."

Jacobs said if there will be no master list he can access, more professors should provide orders to other stores.

"Students work all summer at two or three jobs," he said. "And then they have to spend $100 on a book. Professors should take that into account when they make their orders."

Some students said they favor a master book list, but not necessarily for the reasons Jacobs might - one student said if there was a master list, the University Bookstore could have access to books that are normally only provided to off-campus stores.

"It can be frustrating, living on North Campus, when a professor requires me to make an extra trip to Talking Leaves to get what I need," said Gregory Torbenson, a junior computer engineering major.

"I imagine it's just as annoying for those on South Campus to make an extra trip to North just to get books from the bookstore," Torbenson added.

Other students agreed a centralized book list would be too much of a burden on the university.

"Although I think it would be beneficial to students to have the centralized university-run booklist, I don't think that it's a practical idea," said Allison Woodin, a junior mechanical engineering major. "I don't believe professors or any administration people would want to go along with it."