Page 10 • Thursday, September 11, 2003
NEWS
The Pendulum
Bookstore shortages affect classes
From page 1
On average, Scarborough said
about 35 percent of the books
ordered by the bookstore are
returned to Ihe publishers.
She said it costs the bookstore
a considerable amount to mail
unused books back to the pub
lisher.
Additionally, custom-ordered
packages of books pose an even
bigger problem because they
generally cannot be returned to
the publisher, leaving the book
store to absorb the cost.
Scarborough said that the
bookstore is willing to work with
students on an individual basis to
order books that students need,
but are not in stock. She also
emphasized that the bookstore
works to keep costs down for
students.
Still, some students were
reluctant to purchase their books
from the bookstore this year.
Freshman Chelsea Detrick
was one of those students.
Detrick chose to buy the nov
els she needed for class at
Amazon.com over the summer
after getting the titles and
authors of the books from the
bookstore over the phone.
Although she bought some of
her books online. Detrick pur
chased her class textbooks at the
university bookstore without a
problem.
Not all students were so
lucky.
“Waiting a week and a half for
a book left me behind in my stats
class,” said freshman Brian
Snyder. “It sucked.”
In addition to math classes,
many foreign language classes
and political science courses did
not have the required texts in
stock at the bookstore for the
start the semester.
“Most of my classmates had
to go through two weeks of
Japanese class without all of
their books, myself included,”
said freshman Chris Weitzen.
The book shortage affected
professors as well.
Economics professor Greg
Lilly said the book problem was
an annoyance, but not devastat
ing to the class.
Nevertheless, for his intro
ductory-level economics class,
the texts did not arrive until the
end of the second week of
school, leaving him with nothing
to do but alter his class schedule
accordingly.
In order to deal with not hav
ing the texts for class, some pro
fessors resorted to copying sec
tions of the required texts for
each student in the class until the
books arrived.
All textbook problems aside,
Patricia Ambroziak, adjunct
instructor of biology, said that
her students had a different view
on the situation.
“None of my students really
complained that they were
unable to find any of the texts
that they needed,” she said.
This semester, the bookstore
was responsible for ordering
texts for 494 courses, which is
fewer than in past semesters.
Contact Rachel Abbott at pendu-
lum@elon.edu or 278-7247.
Matt Belanger / Photographer
Campus shop employee Adam Smith locates the IBSN number on a text-
book. Incorrect IBSN nunrters can cause confusion during book orders.
Downtown expansion proposed in graduate student’s project
From page 1
Steve Earley / Photographer
This drawing depicts an upscale shopping district on the athletic fields k)cated across from the Eton fire station.
would be connected to the pres
ent shopping district.
One focus of the plan is com
munity-building. A number of
the proposed elements encourage
interaction, including the integra
tion of retail, residential and pub
lic spaces, a pedestrian-friendly
atmosphere, narrow streets and
comer stores.
Despite its progressive nature,
Graham’s plan seeks to not com
promise the towns identity.
“Of primary concern is the
town’s ability to maintain its
small-town character as it faces
continued pressure from the
adjacent city of Burlington,” she
wrote in the project’s outline.
Town Clerk Sabrina Oliver
said the project is little more than
an idea now. Graham’s plans are
posted in Town Hall for citizens
to review. Oliver said citizens are
encouraged to share their opin
ions about the project.
One component of a new
downtown may be closer to
fruition, however.
Gerald Whittington, vice
president of business, finance
and technology, said the univer
sity has reached an agreement
with a developer to sell the fire
station fields if the developer can
get the land rezoned, produce an
appropriate design and fill the
development with tenants.
Whittington said the universi
ty also stipulated that the devel
oper could not take control of the
land until the school has found
replacement recreational fields.
He said the school is in the
process of designing fields to be
located on land purchased last
year from Elon Homes for
Children.
Fields on the former Elon
Homes for Children land would
also compensate for the loss of
intramural field space once the
new business school is built on
the fields’ west end.
Contact Steve Earley at pen-
dulum@elon.edu or 278-7247.