Word: textbooks
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...language of economics might even rear its head in buying textbooks. A student who has discovered a textbook online for half the cost that he could get it at the Coop might describe this situation to a friend as an ideal “arbitrage opportunity...
...Morin, lecturer for Physics 15a, said he believes the software provides an important service to students looking for extra reading material on the web. “Considering that the amount of information that exists on the web is infinitely more than what can be found in any textbook, it definitely makes sense to lead the students toward helpful links,” Morin wrote in an e-mail to The Crimson. Eve R. Meyer ’09, a student in Wissner-Gross’s section for Physics 15a, agreed that the lists generated by the software were...
Unfortunately, C-CAP misunderstands the Harvard textbook market. The COOP has a local monopoly on Harvard textbook purchases, and lower-income students are perhaps the only group to spend significant book money outside the COOP. The COOP’s financial burden is greatest for those who buy books while pressured by time and stress—shopping online and catching up on the first week’s reading after their books arrive in the mail during weeks two or three. If lower-income students are suddenly given a bit of cash to buy books, trading sanity for savings...
...COOP, of course, would then raise prices. It would not be a gross outrage of a price increase; it is a business, not an evil empire. Using the low estimation of a student’s annual textbook cost, the COOP already makes six million dollars a year off the College. When the better part of C-CAP’s proposed $200,000 in handouts reach COOP registers, the price increase will be slight—two percent, maybe even five percent—but an increase in its bottom line nonetheless...
Implementing these measures could save every student at least 30 percent of a $1,000 budget, and would total well below C-CAP’s $200,000 pricetag. Textbook costs are in need of attention, but if anyone actually cares about the issues of lower-income students, show it by spending a little time thinking rather than giving other people checks to sign. I can beg for handouts myself, thank...