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Students Fed Up with New Editions
by Janine Rectenwald
Wednesday, Dec. 03, 2003 at 4:01 PM
beann210@hotmail.com 724-942-5062
New editions of text books are taking a chunk out of students wallets and they don't see any return for their money. The books they buy a few months before are obsolite as soon as new editions are issued!
Many schools in Pennsylvania are ordering new editions of text books yearly and sometimes semi-yearly and are causing students to pay larger sums of money to get the newer edition. Students don’t get anything in return when they go to sell the books because they aren’t the correct book for the class
This semester alone students at Point Park College spent approximately $400 to $500 for their books, many of which went unused. This scenario is fundamentally the same across Pennsylvania, with students at Washington and Jefferson College, the University of Pittsburgh, Slippery Rock University and Penn State University all complaining that new editions are taking a hefty chunk out of their paychecks for reasons that escape them.
“New Editions are just the same book with better pictures,” said Colin Arbes, a senior Psychology and Sociology major at Washington and Jefferson College.
The big problem occurs when students who have purchased their books a few months before go to sell the books back to the school’s bookstore and they find they cannot because the book has been upgraded or the teacher is no longer requiring that particular book.
At Point Park College in downtown Pittsburgh, students who pay $400 to $500 estimate they will receive about $80 when they return their books. The cause for this dramatic decline in returned cash is new editions.
“They really hurt my bank account because they are still as expensive and you always have to buy new because there are no used,” said Jeremy Clark, a junior and Management Information Systems major at Penn State University. “However on the other hand, they keep the examples updated to current times which makes the reading more interesting and helps my school work.”
In some classes, it is wise to have up to the minute books to teach and learn from. Courses such as Political Science, Computer Information systems, and Media classes all use books that would be obsolete if the professors and authors were not constantly updating the material. However, students in Pennsylvania are encountering new edition updates in courses like History, Art, and English that have books which are being branded “out of date” and the new editions are ordered when the material doesn't seem to need constant up dates.
Colleges all over Pennsylvania would reduce the stress, reduce the strain on their students bank accounts, and raise moral of their campuses if the administration evaluated how much students really gain versus how much they lose from constantly having to buy new editions.
SO TRUE!!
by Karen
Wednesday, Dec. 03, 2003 at 4:05 PM
Kporter@hotmail.com
That article you wrote is SO TRUE!! there's waaaay to much money lost buying books every friggin 4 months it's insane that schools keep issuing new editions. you should try to publish that in the school paper
Screw You, Poor People
by College Republican
Thursday, Dec. 04, 2003 at 1:07 AM
duqgop@hotmail.com
We're wealthy. That's why we stood out in the cold instead of greeting our hero for a $2000 stuffed chicken breast.
We also have very strong convictions, see our content-free homepage for more info.
Fuck the rich
by ~~~
Thursday, Dec. 04, 2003 at 3:52 AM
If your convictions are so high why don't you try updating your website
Succint!
by c.
Friday, Dec. 05, 2003 at 9:43 AM
It's good to see the young republicans can sum up their party's stance in a short, four word title.
Maybe the comment was satirical, but eh...you were outside because you are wealthy?
Leftists are liars, as usual
by Irving
Friday, Dec. 05, 2003 at 10:58 AM
Please provide us with images of the hovels and backalleys that the Kennedy's and Dean's and Gore's and Lieberman's and Kerry's and Klinton's and McKinney's, et al, subsist in.
Thank you.
Hovels? eh--
by c.
Friday, Dec. 05, 2003 at 5:34 PM
Irving:
The Democrats mentioned surly don't live in hovels. Then again, they're not 'leftists' either. Republicrat is a more accurate term.
The right, as usual, has confused things.
Thank You.
Clarion Senior
by Emily
Saturday, Jan. 03, 2004 at 12:53 PM
jamaica414@hotmail.com
People, this post is about the price of text books and the lousy (if any) returns students recieve for them. Could we please stick to that topic and stop bitching and slamming the others politics? As students, we are all in the same boat, some being rowed by the state, others by private institiutions. I too believe that the text book affair is rediculous and plan to inquire further information from my student book center (which is run and owned by the students-most are, they just don't act like it). Students are the reason these universities are around, hold them accountable.
Clarion Senior
by Emily
Saturday, Jan. 03, 2004 at 12:54 PM
jamaica414@hotmail.com
People, this post is about the price of text books and the lousy (if any) returns students recieve for them. Could we please stick to that topic and stop bitching and slamming the others politics? As students, we are all in the same boat, some being rowed by the state, others by private institiutions. I too believe that the text book affair is rediculous and plan to inquire further information from my student book center (which is run and owned by the students-most are, they just don't act like it). Students are the reason these universities are around, hold them accountable.
Emily, you ignorant slut
by Irv The Nirv
Saturday, Jan. 03, 2004 at 1:18 PM
OOOHHH, you don't get any money back from your used textbooks. Oh, cry me a river. That is the way it has been for decades ... and I don't remember anyone I know whining about it. But then again, you are one of those whiny liberals that has to have everything done for you, or someone else insuring every risk of your fragile life, no matter what.
I will tell you though that in my experience the better students who did hte best annotations of their textbooks were always able to command a higher resell. I was once so fortunate to be able to acquire from a friend of mine an exceptionally well annotated textbook. She had gotten an A+ in the course. With her book I did the same the following semester. That book resold for the next two years at near the original price because of hte exceptional notes. So take good notes. Create your own value (a new concept to you I am sure), and use the situation to your advantage. Remember, no one wants to buy a used textbook from a class slacker ... it has bad karma.
Evan, you ignorant slut
by Irv The Nirv
Sunday, Jan. 04, 2004 at 4:38 AM
audio: 
wav file (14.6 kibibytes)audio: wav file (14.6 kibibytes)
*Sexist title, substantive post. Ideas?*
http://howard.indypgh.org/pipermail/imc-pgh-editorial/2004-January/001208.html
______________
Evan, not only are you politically ignorant, but you are also a pop culture idiot. The title is not "sexist" (but you are right, the post is substantive).
just for your enlightenment and education, the title comes form the famous Saturday Night Live skit with Dan Akroyd ("Jane, you ignorant slut") http://entertainment.lycos.com/television/guide/snl.asp
That line has found its way into the western lexicon since it first aired over 20 years ago (probably before you were born, but that is still no excuse for not knowing anything about it). Just do a google or vivisimo search for "Jane, you ignorant slut" and see what you get. http://www.inthe70s.com/generated/tvquotes_s.shtml
Please, you editors really have to step back every then and agian and quit looking at the entire world through your victim PC goggles. It only makes you look really out of it when you have no idea were the "_____, you ignorant slut" line comes from.
for your listening pleasure
by Irv The Nirv
Sunday, Jan. 04, 2004 at 4:45 AM
audio: wav file (14.6 kibibytes)audio: wav file (14.6 kibibytes)
"Jane, you ignorant slut", Dan Akroyd, Saturday Night Live, .wav file.
For Irv
by Evan, the Imperial Editor
Sunday, Jan. 04, 2004 at 8:24 AM
I am not ignorant of pop culture. I was an avid viewer of Saturday Night Live for many years. I think it was used to get around our policies. It's how you used the expression. You are far from ignorant on some issues. Manipulative is more like it.
irv has some nerve
by nathan j
Sunday, Jan. 04, 2004 at 9:45 AM
irv, i don't care where such a commonly known line comes from, it doesn't mitigate the fact that such a comment is offensive. just because it's well known in certain cultural circles doesn't give you the right to put down another person, even in the guise of a joke. the line is taken out of context, so how are we to know it's NOT a personal attack?
and to get back to the topic, i don't know what school you may have gone to, but in MY experience i've never known any school bookstore to give someone more or less money based on the quality of the annotation given it by a student. rather, in fact, i've seen that ANY writing in the book usually lowers the value of said book in their eyes. how are they supposed to know if anything one wrote is worth a nit?
i was tempted to write more on this topic, but i'm sure that you're only reading this response in order to cull quotations to throw back at me later. so if you're gonna call someone a 'whiny liberal' or a 'slut' without knowing a thing about them, then here's this:
i'm sick of you stupid f*cking trollers that tell everyone to suck it up, stop whining, stop slacking, and get a job. you slam everyone else for their supposed lack of insight or knowledge of the world, but do you offer anything to the discussion? i'm sick of the agist (that's discrimination based on age) comments that get flung around here. just because you're older and maybe have seen more of this world than someone younger doesn't mean that you're any wiser. in fact, in my experience, old people have let their sense of ethics become mired in compromises to the point of letting anything wrong go unpunished, as long as their old way of life is preserved. i'm sick of people going off topic (just as i am, forgive me) when there are other venues for their ideas (parroted or original). i'm sick of people assuming that just because we take on a slight idealistic tone, that we're whiny liberals crying out to make other people do things for us. just because we're talking a lot of stuff, doesn't mean we're not out there DOING some of it.
ok, yeah, i'm a hypocrite, if you want to call me that. i say 'no personal attacks', then go and personally attack someone. a taste of their own medicine...
now go ahead and call me a whiny, commie, leftist, liberal kid that's out of touch with the world, so you can get on with your life, but leave the slut-calling out of it.
now i'll get down off my soapbox and go do something constructive.
by the way
by nathan j
Sunday, Jan. 04, 2004 at 9:52 AM
don't kid yourself, i'm no kid.
Nathan Jones
by Irving
Sunday, Jan. 04, 2004 at 10:03 AM
You realize that all the citizens of an entire town drowned from your bladder eruption, don't you?
Nathan, you ignorant slut
by Irv The Nirv
Sunday, Jan. 04, 2004 at 10:47 AM
Dude, let me get you a tissue.
My statement about the resell of the books was that you can sell your books to other students directly. The better annotations from the beter students were sought out. That's called making your own opportunity. There I drew you a map and you still missed it.
Oh, thanks for pretty much proving everything that any of the non-leftist individuals have said about you people being whiny. that was about the whiniest cryfest I have ever read. Sorry about making you wet yourself dude. If you didn't tell me your weren't a kid I would have never been able to guess it.
BTW: I am sick and tired of this name calling. I am tired of your gnomist (that's racism against small elfin woods persons such as elfs, pixies, fairies, gnomes and trolls). You make me sick with the constant use of hte terms in the sense that you believe these people of the Earth are lesser than you. I am sick of your cosmetic society that banishes trolls to live under bridges and in holes, that relegates gnomes and elfs to making cookies in old stumps. You see us all as quaint garden statuary or handy targets for your verbal abuse. I am not going to take it any more.
BTW II: Thanks to SNL, there is absolutely no other context for the "jane, you ignorant slut" line. It could never be taken to actually mean someone is a slut (if you find that undesirable, I mean, I don't want to be slutist). In fact, do the google search and see that the common usage for the past 28 years is to indicate that the maker of the statement is about to wax poetic in disagreement with the referenced slut.
you may be right about that
by nathan josiah
Sunday, Jan. 04, 2004 at 11:05 AM
yeah, i'll admit that was long-winded. i didn't mean it to be such. i was reacting to a comment i perceived as a personal attack (not to myself), and perhaps (perhaps) i over-reacted.
it doesn't seem that i struck a nerve with you, so perhaps (again, perhaps) i was mistaken in assuming you to be a right-winger troll bent on disruption of a thread. i should not assume anything not explicitly stated, nor should you.
the point of the matter, though, is that we should stay on topic, and not fling names around without knowing, really knowing, what we're talking about.
your comment about receiving a book from a friend is a good idea for this issue. then it is possible to negotiate a price that is equitable for both parties. the problem lies in the fact that when a new edition becomes available, or even required, the old edition, however annotated, becomes almost worthless.
verbal abuse
by nathan j
Sunday, Jan. 04, 2004 at 11:35 AM
oh, so you're not gonna take verbal abuse anymore, but you're willing to start it, huh?
just because 99% of society might not perceive such comment as 'you ignorant slut' as offensive, doesn't make it any less offensive. you took it out of context, thus stripping away any connection to the mainstream meaning. you're missing the point: just because everyone else says it's so doesn't necessarily make it so.
i was even about to apologize for mistakenly calling you names, but now i'm glad i didn't, you myopic asshole. there's some more fuel for your fire, dick.
About New Editions
by Irv The Nirv
Sunday, Jan. 04, 2004 at 11:45 AM
They really do not chane that much. It it just a way for the book companies keep makin money. Unless there has been some sgnificant grondbreakig study or change in laws, then dn't buy th e new edition. By a good used book from another student. Do I need to do everything for you.
myopia
by Bombastic Ewan
Sunday, Jan. 04, 2004 at 11:49 AM
"BTW, conservatives accusing progressives of being "hateful" or "angry" is a great example of projection."
um
by nathan j
Sunday, Jan. 04, 2004 at 3:24 PM
perhaps i was unclear about this... the point is that frequently, it is the teachers of the class that require students to acquire a new edition of the book. it has nothing to do with how different the book is or is not. it has nothing to do with kids making opportunities for themselves. you're not doing anything for me, because you're missing the point.
example:
student A goes to Biology class, and buys the Joy of Biology, second edition. next semester, the publishers of Joy of Biology release their third edition. teacher of Biology then requires all students to get the third edition, not the 'outdated' second edition. student A goes to sell his/her copy of the book to student B, just now taking biology. student B tells student A, "sorry, i'd like to buy it cheap from you, but we need the new version". student A is beat. student B buys overpriced new edition to pass class. teacher of Biology gets a special deal from the publisher on the next edition when it comes out.
this is the reality of buying and selling books at schools these days.
so stop suggesting that you're doing me any favors, cause you're not.
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