Sarah Gilbert / The Collegian
Kennel renting out lower division GE texts to students
While the demand for textbooks is higher than ever, for many college students the releases of new editions and requirements from professors are making these demands harder to achieve.
In fall of 2008 the Kennel Bookstore started a new program to help save students’ pocket books — the textbook rental program.
In its second semester of existence, there are currently three textbooks available for rent from the Kennel Bookstore.
Courses offering rentals are Nutrition 53, Communications 8 and Biology 10, all classes that fulfill lower-division general education requirements.
These three courses are very popular among first and second year students, and usually fill up in the early stages of registration.
Program details
Students often find these books are very costly, ranging from about $77 to $140 for new editions.
The Kennel Bookstore is offering these titles for between roughly $30 and $40 dollars for a semester̢۪s rent.
According to Kennel Bookstore Director Ron Durham, rented books are due back to the bookstore the day after finals.
Students receive a grace period of one week before incurring an additional fee of $10.
Photo illustration by Bryan Cole / The Collegian
If the book is still not returned, the fee goes up and a hold is placed on students̢۪ accounts.
Students will have to pay full price for the textbooks that are still not returned after this.
“An act of goodwill”
According to Kennel Bookstore Department Manager Susan Bartel, the first semester the rental option went smoothly.
According to Bartel, 95 out of 1,000 books were not returned by the deadline last December.
After the weeklong grace period, it went down to 14 books out.
As of the beginning of the spring 2009 semester, only two students had not returned the books. The bookstore placed holds on both their accounts.
According to Bartel, prices of these books are being dropped half to three-quarters of what one would be paying for a new book.
“We want to accommodate the average first- or second-year student’s needs. It is more of an act of goodwill, because over time we will be breaking even,â€Â Bartel said.
According to Bartel, reductions in big titles, like those that the bookstore offers for rental, can result in a loss of funds.
Durham explained that the money lost from not selling these books as new would be made back in an average of four semesters, assuming all the rentals are taken advantage of.
To ensure the bookstore makes the money back, professors of these courses are required to sign an agreement to use the same editions of their texts for a certain number of semesters.
Rentals geared toward freshmen, sophomores
Bartel explained that the reason for picking these three courses in particular is because it reaches the most number of students.
“We aren’t offering any upper division textbooks right now because a lot of juniors and seniors like to keep their books at semester’s end,â€Â Bartel said.
According to both Durham and Bartel, the textbook rental service does have a future at Fresno State.
Junior kinesiology major Randyl Penfold, who was not aware of Kennel Bookstore̢۪s rental program, expressed his desire to rent textbooks.
“This is a great idea to help students. I just wish that they had a few upper division books for rent,â€Â Penfold said.
“Hopefully I can benefit from this and save my greens for other things,â€Â Penfold said, considering the possibility that the bookstore might offer more textbooks for rent in the future.
Other options
Kennel Bookstore isn̢۪t the only textbook rental service students have available to them.
Another such service, Skoobit.com, offers similar benefits to the Kennel Bookstore.
Skoobit.com has a searchable database of available titles, as opposed to the three books Kennel Bookstore has available.
Skoobit.com offers its rentals for about $11 a month.
“This is it. This is what we have been waiting for, it is like a Netflix or a Gamefly. Pay as you play, or in this case read,â€Â said Penfold, who was previously unaware of Skoobit.com.
Skoobit.com is a monthly rental service opposed to the bookstore̢۪s semester option.
Sophomore chemistry major Pratik Patel also preferred Skoobit.com when he heard about it.
“It is just easy. It is a little cheaper than the bookstore, but that is assuming I send my books back in before semester’s end,â€Â Patel said.
Ernest Mooney • Feb 4, 2009 at 3:01 pm
If the program “does not make money for the store” may we assume that it is costing the store to provide this service. If so, the students who do not rent books are subsidizing the rental program. Is this fair?
Under the Kennel bookstore program, a book would cover its initial cost in 3 semesters and the 4th semester would generate the approximate profit margin of an outright sale. But, what about administrative costs of renting and recovering the book 4 times? Does anyone look at the facts and the bottom line in establishing these programs?
Or, as the Used Textbook Association suggests, isn’t the purchase of a used book and the resale of that book at the end of the semester a better value to the student?
The effort to fix a system that is not broken only complicates matters for the students. With options of new vs used, bookstore vs internet, purchase vs rental, how is the student able to make the correct decision?
It is my prediction that rental programs will prove to be another failed experiment in the fruitless effort to preserve textbook business exclusively for the campus store.
Ernest Mooney • Feb 4, 2009 at 10:01 pm
If the program “does not make money for the store” may we assume that it is costing the store to provide this service. If so, the students who do not rent books are subsidizing the rental program. Is this fair?
Under the Kennel bookstore program, a book would cover its initial cost in 3 semesters and the 4th semester would generate the approximate profit margin of an outright sale. But, what about administrative costs of renting and recovering the book 4 times? Does anyone look at the facts and the bottom line in establishing these programs?
Or, as the Used Textbook Association suggests, isn’t the purchase of a used book and the resale of that book at the end of the semester a better value to the student?
The effort to fix a system that is not broken only complicates matters for the students. With options of new vs used, bookstore vs internet, purchase vs rental, how is the student able to make the correct decision?
It is my prediction that rental programs will prove to be another failed experiment in the fruitless effort to preserve textbook business exclusively for the campus store.
The Hanging Brain • Feb 2, 2009 at 1:13 am
Students need to get together and leave the bookstore behind. Post on kiosks, ensure accuracy in what version/volume is being re-ordered, and try to assist other students in getting fair prices and the right course text. Relying on the bookstore is B.S.
The Hanging Brain • Feb 2, 2009 at 8:13 am
Students need to get together and leave the bookstore behind. Post on kiosks, ensure accuracy in what version/volume is being re-ordered, and try to assist other students in getting fair prices and the right course text. Relying on the bookstore is B.S.