Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Editor
There I sat, two days before the spring semester was set to begin, staring at a list of required textbooks.
As a journalism and mass communication major, I admittedly spend far less money on books than a business or science major would.
And I’ve been around the textbook block before. I’ve been duped into paying far more than necessary for the convenience of buying from the bookstore. I’ve paid for books that I never cracked open and never intended to. I’ve even paid for books that professors didn’t know were on their required reading list.
As a six-time veteran of buying textbooks for a new semester of classes, I felt as though I should’ve had more of an expertise on how to handle the process so I didn’t waste too much money. But I didn’t.
Of course, I know now to avoid the school bookstore for any purchase over $20. But I’m almost absolutely certain my use of the books I purchased over the course of the semester won’t match the price I paid. It certainly hasn’t in my first five semesters of college.
Some say to avoid this by waiting to see if you’ll actually need the book before ordering. But what if a professor was to assign a reading or an assignment that required book use? If the assignment were due the next class, the student wouldn’t have time to order the book and complete his or her work. For this reason, I, and presumably many others, choose to order books we may not need.
As has been previously noted in this section, plenty of St. Bonaventure professors rely on PowerPoints and Moodle to teach students. They may assign readings, but they give no incentive to do said readings. Some professors find more creative ways to make the very books they assigned obsolete.
For example, one math professor I had required all students to buy a book that ran nearly $200 at the bookstore and still cost nearly $100 to buy used on Amazon. Yet he taught the class entirely though handouts. He assigned practice problems from the book, but considering our handouts featured examples and practice problems, using the book to practice was quite unnecessary.
That math class was just one of many cases that make textbook-buying season so unnecessarily stressful.
This isn’t to say teachers shouldn’t require textbooks or even that textbooks should be cheaper. All I ask is for professors to carefully consider whether their syllabus will require enough book use to justify students spending whatever the book in question costs.
I’m not requesting too much from St. Bonaventure professors here – just show some courtesy to students who are put in a difficult enough financial situation as is.
Taylor Nigrelli is the sports editor for The Bona Venture. His email is nigreltn11@bonaventure.edu.
