As each term draws to a close, many Dartmouth students experience the sickening realization that they have yet again fallen victim to the Wheelock Books buyback scam. Perhaps scam is the wrong word -- we do willingly, albeit grudgingly, return our ridiculously expensive books for the slimmest fraction of the original price allowed by human dignity. If Wheelock takes the books back at all (anyone looking for a copy of "New England Thicket and Forest"?), it is sometimes for a tenth of the original price -- something many of us just cannot afford.
Although students can pursue alternative options, it is rather evident that Wheelock maintains a monopoly on the Dartmouth student textbook market. There is always Amazon.com and similar websites, but by the time many students figure out what classes they are taking, there simply isn't any time to wait for shipping. This, combined with the laziness of most college students, makes Wheelock Books the most viable option for buying and reselling textbooks.
It is not my purpose to bash Wheelock Books -- the store providese a necessary service to students, functions in accordance with all the laws of supply-and-demand capitalistic business structure and, if I may say so, has some very cute cashiers. What I will argue is that our student organizations -- here to serve us, not to make a profit -- could be doing more to help those of us who cannot afford to get $23 (and eight Wheelock bucks!) back for a $230 investment.
In previous years, the Assembly ran a system for student book buying and selling through "The Exchange," the now defunct link on the Basement website. The program allowed potential student buyers to contact potential student sellers who posted their used textbooks on the site. Although the system provided a viable alternative to Wheelock, subsequent Assembly administrations have not maintained the site. While new Assembly leaderships have new goals, there will always be a need for an efficient and permanent book exchange system -- and therefore the Assembly should redevelop such a system.
What I envision is something along the lines of the recently developed ride-share application, ZimRide. Run from the Assembly website, or perhaps Facebook.com, this application would be a permanent forum for students to communicate with each other to negotiate more reasonable deals than those they would be able to find at Wheelock Books, or even on Amazon.com. Too often I hear students remarking, "Oh, I would have sold that book to you for cheaper if I'd known you needed it."
By simply providing a forum for dialogue, this program (BookShare?) would allow students to buy books cheaper they are available than at Wheelock or online while simultaneously making a greater return on their investment.
As the system grew and developed, more features could be incorporated. Perhaps students could trade books in for credit with which they could "purchase" other books they needed, and the Assembly could act as a sort of clearinghouse for student textbooks, holding on to books not yet sold.
The service could function as a textbook library of sorts; once you deposited a book, you would be able to take out a different one that someone else had deposited. While there are many potential problems -- some people not getting what they need, not having enough participation and not getting the most up-to-date books -- that would have to be addressed, the idea is simple and could be adapted as the program grew.
Many might argue that this would be an unfair system. No bookseller could compete with students buying from and selling to each other, let alone just trading books back and forth. But I disagree. Any system dependent on student involvement will be subject to student apathy, and there will always be those who will continue to use Wheelock to buy and resell books. A new, student-run system would simply allow for the more fiscally conscious among us to find better deals, save money and help out our fellow students.
The Assembly is always sending out surveys and asking the student body what they could do better. Consider this my input -- with the Assembly presidential elections coming up, let me be the first to say that, should a candidate include any sort of student book market, they'll have my (and I imagine a few others') vote.
