NEWS
Januat7 26,2000 • theSeahawk
3
A-Team speaks at local high schools
by ALLISON BIGGAR
Staff Writer
Kathryn Schley/The Seahawk
A-Team members Erica Pittelkow and Allison Ragon, along with other memt>ers, are
speaking at area high schools as part of their sexual assault awareness campaign.
Black History Month
events announced
During the month of February, the
university will be hosting the following
events in honor of Black History Month.
On Tuesday, Feb. 1, Warith Deen
Mohammed will present a lecture in
Kenan Auditorium at 7 p.m.
Mohammed is the son of the late Elijah
Mohammed and religious leader of the
Muslim American Society and tradi
tional Islamic followers. The lecture is
free and sponsored by the department of
philosophy and religion and the Tauheed
Islamic Center.
Throughout the month, the Alpha Phi
Alpha fraternity will be sponsoring “A
Tribute to An Alpha: Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. Display” in the Upper African
American Cultural Center.
On Tuesday, Feb. 15 the National
Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) will
sponsor “Greek Life: Fact or Fiction” at
7 p.m. in the Upperman African Ameri
can Cultural Center. The program will
be a discussion of Greek life on campus
followed by a question and answer pe
riod.
On Wednesday, Feb. 16 at noon a dis
cussion on “Affirmative Action: Friend
or Foe” will be held in the Upperman
African American Cultural Center. The
discussion will be facilitated by Joy
Williams, a junior majoring in computer
science.
On Tuesday, Feb. 22 the Delta Sigma
Theta sorority will sponsor a discussion
titled “Look Where He Brought Me
From: The African American Woman
from Past to Present” in the Upper
American Cultural Center from 7-9
p.m. The discussion will cover six ma
jor time periods: slavery, emancipation,
wartime, civil rights, present and future.
Blood donations needed
The Carolinas Region of the Ameri
can Red Cross has issued an emergency
appeal for blood donors. The combina
tion of traditionally low blood supply
following the holidays and a major out
break of the flu has caused the Red
Cross to declare a national appeal for
donors. Nationally, 27 of the 37 Red
Cross blood service regions are at less
that one day’s supply of type “O”, the
universal blood type, and all blood types
are needed.
Eligible donors are urged to visit the
blood center at 1102 South 16"' Street
on Mondays and Wednesdays between
noon and 6 p.m. or on Fridays from 8
a.m. to 1 p.m.
Donors must be at least 17 years of
age, weigh at least 100 pounds and be
in good health. Call 762-5540 or 762-
2683 for an appointment.
The A-Team, UNCW’s sexual as
sault awareness team, is currently host
ing an informative campaign in an at
tempt to make the Wilmington
community aware of the dangers of
sexual assault. During the coming
week, the A-Team will be giving presen
tations at local high schools.
“Basically they will representing an
interactive program...to promote sexual
assault awareness and [present] a lot of
preventative measures in terms of safety
awareness,” said Senior Allison Ragon,
A-Team student coordinator.
Ragon said the A-Team hopes to open
the eyes of students who aren’t aware
of the potential dangers around them.
The lectures will not only present sta
tistics, but the A-Team will attempt to
confront students with potentially dan
gerous situations and ask them to come
up with safety strategies.
“We are trying to hit the seniors be
cause they will probably be going to
college and living in a new environment
where they’re going to trust everyone
because they are used to doing that,”
Correspondent
Going online to buy textbooks is the
latest trend for university students. The
idea of saving money appeals to most col
lege students, but without extensive re
search, students could lose hard earned
cash.
The big E-businesses such as
bigwords.com, varsitybooks.com and
efollet.com all advertise discounted text
book delivered directly to the customer’s
door, eliminating the hassle of wading
through long bookstore lines. However,
without knowing the exact textbooks one
needs or the price offered at the campus
bookstore, students can get frustrated and
buy the wrong textbooks at a higher price.
UNCW senior Kim Hill, recently
bought her textbooks from bigwords.com.
She placed an order for 25 textbooks on
December 21 to receive a special sale price
of 15% off the entire order. Due to a web
site update four days before the sale ended
she was unable to place her order.
“I’ve had nothing but trouble from
them,” said Hill.
In addition to the fact that Hill did not
receive sale price, the business cancelled
two books she ordered without her notifi
cation and she is still waiting for one book
to be delivered.
“I’m not trying to give them [bigwords]
a bad wrap because they do have the same
or lower price than the campus store. Still,
it saved me a lot of money even though it
was a pain . . .,” Hill said. “My advice is
to order way early and do lots of shop
ping around for the best price.”
Shopping around for textbooks may in
clude a visit to vivasmart.com, a free
Ragon said. “What we’re trying to do is
say you cant trust everyone and you need
to be more aware so you don’t one day
wake up a victim.”
The A-Team has supported and par
ticipated in many events concerning rape
and safety awareness. Among these
Internet site that compares prices, shipping
and availability of texts for each univer
sity. UNCW textbooks are included at this
site.
Another option is to check out
collegebooksnetwork.com, a free online
classifieds page for college textbooks
where students can sell old textbooks to
other students. This site claims a win/win
situation for the buyer and seller.
The hunt for cheap text books is often
made easier when campus bookstores
place course textbooks online, listing new
and used prices as well as a full descrip-
rion of the text.
The UNCW campus store manager, Teri
Schuttle-Beck, was unavailable for com
ment on the development of this type of
site, but David Dyer manager of the Sea
hawk Book and Supply said one should
be available to UNCW students soon.
“We’re developing that for our site
(www.seahawkbooks.com),” Dyer said.
“It should be available next semester.”
On their new site students will be able
to pay online and have their order shipped
or they can pick it up. They will still offer
the option of reserving textbooks on the
current web site.
Some students have raised concerns
about security of online buying proce
dures.
“I thought about it [buying textbooks
online],” said Meredith Ledwell, a junior
at UNCW, “but I’m a little hesitant about
putting my information online.”
The websites bigwords.com,
varsitybooks.com and efollet.com each
insure security in that no one can retrieve
personal information or credit card num
bers from an order placed online. Along-
events is the annual Take Back the
Night March and The White Ribbon
Campaign which is an effort to get men
involved with the struggle to end vio
lence against women.
side a promise of security, all three ma
jor sites promise low prices, no waiting
in line and a guaranteed buy back at the
end of the semester.
Seahawk Book and Supply feels it has
not lost much business to online book
stores.
“I looked into it a bit,” Dyer said. “I
asked our UPS delivery guy and he said
he’d seen some packages from various
Internet textbook sites, about five to 10 a
day. That constitutes about 50 students.
That’s not that much of a loss but buying
books online will pick up in the next few
semesters.”
The National Association of Campus
Stores (NACS), which serves as a watch
dog for college stores and student con
sumers, recently conducted research
about where to get the best book deals.
The association selected 50 textbooks
used for introductory courses in various
disciplines. Of the 50 selected titles, 44
were available from all sources online.
The college store price was the lowest for
17 books or 38.6%. 16 books or 36.4%
fell in the middle with the college store
price and nine books place the highest
price at 20.5%. Only two books had the
same price.
On their web site the NACS claims
that, “College students very often can buy
tneir textbooks rrom college oooKstores
at prices just as low as the online book
sellers.”
The NACS represents 3,000 higher
education retailers worldwide and cam
paigns to warn students of buying online.
In October 1999, the NACS sued
varsitybooks.com over false advertising
regarding discounts.
See A-TEAM. oaae 5
Textbook Wars: online versus on-campus
by BECKY LEWIS