Books for pennies

Students should be fed up with local bookstores’ measly buy-back offers.

The only thing more depressing for us than buying textbooks is selling those same textbooks back come semester’s end for a mere pittance.

Freshmen, here’s a little taste of what to expect — sometime during the stress of finals week, you’ll notice tables with cash registers atop them, advertising that the most wonderful time of the year has at last arrived … most wonderful, that is, for the wallets of those in charge of local bookstores. However, this dreaded time, also known as book buy-back, is sure to leave you befuddled and angry.

That math textbook that cost a month’s rent is worthless without a blank workbook. Too bad your professor required you to complete countless, mindless exercises, filling the workbook with your less-than-tidy scrawl.

Those dozen supposed “classics” you bought for mythology class might fetch a few bucks, but most only will yield a quarter or two. That’s right, a classic text from ancient Greece, and the bookstore denounces its very value.

While we accept textbook prices have gone up for bookstores for a myriad of reasons, we demand to get back most of the cash we dropped for the textbook in the first place. If bookstores have to set guidelines to determine which books will be bought back according to what condition they are returned in, then that’s fine.

We understand bookstores giving us a pittance back for a waterlogged text that’s missing its cover and has pages torn out, but for a book returned in a like-new condition after sitting in a dorm room for four months with only sporadic use, we demand at least 75 percent of the original cost back, not the oft-guaranteed 50 percent, and you should, too. Selling your textbooks should leave you thankful the bookstore even allows such a practice, not feeling cheated at the unfairness of it all.

Sadly, that’s anything but the case with the present buy-back amounts.

Hurricane help

Two years later, Katrina’s damage is still serious – here’s how you can help

While many students may be looking forward to this season’s first home game against Oklahoma State this Saturday, there are thousands of people who view this week with a different kind of reverence.

This week marks the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the damage the storm wrought on southeastern United States, destroying towns and claiming lives in New Orleans, Alabama and parts of the Mississippi coast.

Although two years have passed, these damaged communities still are rebuilding themselves and are facing financial issues such as a lack of affordable housing and healthcare.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t find a way to help out.

This weekend, take time to respect the lives lost and affected by this deadly natural disaster. Consider taking your next vacation to New Orleans to help stiumlate their local economy. Who says Mardi Gras has to happen only once a year?

Or find a way to volunteer your time and handiwork in the disaster areas. For more information, check out http://www.usafreedomcorps.gov for volunteer opportunities.