The Bookstore and your Wallet

According to a recent poll about the costs of textbooks at campus bookstores, the majority of respondents believe that the prices of books are way too high for the amount of use they get out of them. Jason Pieper, a student at Anoka-Ramsey College (ARCC) said, “I dread the start of every semester. The second I leave the bookstore after purchasing all my textbooks, I know that for the next few weeks the only food I’ll be able to afford is Ramen noodles.”

While everyone may not be forced to eat Ramen noodles after visiting the local campus bookstore, 27 out of the 31 or roughly 87% of respondents still believe that the costs of textbooks should be lower than what they are now. One of these respondents, student Jessica Williams added, “I think it is pretty ridiculous that I have to pay $225 for a single textbook when the class it’s for only costs about $400 to take.”

However, student Peter Lee doesn’t agree with Williams, saying that “Textbooks are quite valuable. If you’ve taken enough courses, you’ll understand just about everything you learn can be found in the book. So really you’re getting the same material for around half the price of the course. Most of the time there is stuff in the book that the class doesn’t cover, so that just adds to the value of the textbook.”

Benjamin Olson, one of the 31 ARCC students at the Cambridge campus polled, believes in just the opposite of what Lee said. Olson explained, “There’s been too many courses over the years that never once had me open the textbook I bought. All the information we needed was posted online or given out during class. What is the point of buying an expensive book if we’re never going to use it? It is a huge waste of money.”

Three out of the four respondents that thought the pricing of books was reasonable for their use all mentioned to some degree what Justin Lamb had to say. “I think the money invested in books gets outweighed by having the material you need to be successful in class. It is pretty hard to deny that books generally help improve your grade in class, as well as your understanding of the content. But also, they then provide a permanent source to turn to if you ever want to review the information you learned, that is assuming you don’t sell the books back,” Lamb explained.

However, in many situations students do sell back their books according to the poll. Of the 31 respondents, 21 of them sell back their semester’s worth of books to the bookstore. That is about 68% of the students polled. When asked why they sell their books back, all 21 respondents said they do it for the extra cash.

“When the end of the semester rolls around, I get excited. After selling back my books, I have enough cash to splurge a little. No more Ramen noodles for me, next stop McDonald’s Big Mac combo meal, super sized!” added Pieper.

Oops

The cat is out of the bag when it comes to Apple’s next iPhone. After an Apple engineer accidently left the iPhone prototype in a California bar, a person found it then peddled the phone off to a technology news site named Gizmodo for $5000. Since then the site has released footage of the new iPhone and its features. Late Monday night Gizmodo was contacted by Apple to have the device returned.

New York Times -

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/technology/companies/20apple.html?src=me&ref=general

Cafeteria

Many students take night courses at Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC), and often miss their opportunity to eat a decent meal because of limited cafeteria hours. According to a recent poll about whether the cafeteria should have extended hours to be able to service all students or not, many believe that the cafeteria shouldn’t be open longer and it is the student’s responsibility, not the schools to acquire a healthy meal. Student Justin Adams said, “There is a reason why the cafeteria has the hours it does. It’s impractical to keep the cafeteria open during hours when it’ll cost more money to run than make. Plus, that money [to keep it open] would most likely come straight from the student’s pockets. A lot of people don’t even use the cafeteria, so why would they want to pay for it?”

However, not everyone agreed with Adams, saying that it is unfair that not every student receives equal opportunities, even when it came down to food. Amanda Ross, another ARCC student explained, “Not everyone has the means, or the time to eat a healthy meal before coming to class. As a night student, it is frustrating to only have vending machines to turn to. Many night students are busy during the day so they are forced to take classes at night. It doesn’t seem fair that these students aren’t afforded the same opportunities as the rest,”

So although cafeteria hours are unlikely to change in the near future, there are still some solutions to this dilemma. Prepare a meal ahead of time that can be brought to school. Often there is time between classes or during breaks for students to get a chance to eat. Even just bringing an apple can help ease the hunger before going home. Another option is to visit the cafeteria early, and buy something to eat later. There are many other possible solutions like these out there, they just requiring a bit of planning ahead of time.

Farming Fish?

When it comes to fish farming, there are a lot of various ecological issues to take into account. Each species of fish has different requirements, and these are the things that lead to problems down the road. Farmed salmon are kept in pens that are permeable by the surrounding ocean. This allows for the transfer of pollution, diseases and other things to the wild species in the area. However, some fish like catfish have much lower requirements, and can easily be kept isolated from other fish. Therefore, that is why there are much more critics, such as the World Wildlife Fund, for farming salmon than catfish.

Cold Day Memory

Sevendust

Warner Music Group

75 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10019

For Immediate Release

CONTACT: 7Bros. Records
Telephone: (212) 275-2000

SEVENDUST RELEASES THEIR NEW ALBUM COLD DAY MEMORY

Sevendust - Lajon Witherspoon (Vocals), Morgan Rose (Drums/Vocals), Clint Lowery (Guitar/Vocals), Vince Hornsby (Bass/Vocals), John Connolly (Guitar/Vocals) are set to release their newest album Cold Day Memory on April 20^th. This will be the bands first new album with their original lineup back together since 2003’s Seasons. Guitar player Clint Lowery has been gone for the last three records Sevendust has released until now.

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Killer Methane

When it comes to mining coal, an explosive gas known as methane will always pose a risk. When an area is opened up to mining, methane leaks out from the coal. This creates a threat to the miners if the gas gets ignited. However, there are steps that are taken to lessen the risk such as, pumping in fresh air to push the methane out. One major concern though is that people often take shortcuts that undermine safety. Sometimes such shortcuts result in a deadly explosion.

New York Times-

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/science/07methane.html?ref=science

Bookstore

Books are vital to a student’s college life, yet there are a variety of problems people face with them. First off, the costs of books can be quite high. Many textbooks can be priced well over $200 per book. Even buying used textbooks, students often spend hundred dollars for a semesters worth of literature. Not to mention, the bad condition many used books are in, and frustration one feels when their book is missing important pages. Also, when it comes to buying books it isn’t rare to see that the bookstore doesn’t have every book you need in stock. Sometimes it takes weeks for them to arrive, and at other times they never do. Finally, when the semester is over students sell back their books, and they often get only a slight fraction of what they paid for them. In this story I will aim to understand why there are so many problems students face when it comes to books, and what they can do to try and save some money.

I came up with this idea because over the time I've been in college, I've dealt with many of these issues. I know I'm not the only one too as many of my friends and other students have gone through the same problems. I've always kind of wondered why these things happened. I believe other students would be interested in knowing why these problems occur and why the textbooks are so costly.