UNM students are losing out on untold amounts of money through the University Bookstore's textbook buy-back program because faculty members are failing to participate in the program, officials say.
The program, which allows students to sell textbooks back to the bookstore at the end of every semester, is a source of income many UNM students rely on.
The program only runs successfully if faculty members complete a bookstore form saying whether they will be using the same book the following semester, said Melanie Sparks, UNM Bookstore director.
She said the forms allow bookstore personnel to accurately judge a textbook's worth, and they can't begin buying a book back until the forms are completed.
"Until we get the completed forms, we're forced to offer $5 for a book that would have been worth $50 if we had the order for it," she said.
In past semesters, Sparks said about 80 percent of the University's faculty completed their obligations to the program. This fall, 50 percent of UNM instructors did their part, she said.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
"The faculty's participation in the program this fall was miserable," Sparks said. "This is really important to the students. I know they lost out on money because of this."
Sparks said at any given time there are about 5,000 textbooks being used in classes at UNM. The lackluster participation by UNM faculty in the program that controls all of those books has to change, she said.
"When only half of the professors get back to us with their orders, that's 2,500 books that we don't know what to do with," she said. "That's a huge problem."
Sparks said the bookstore has tried numerous methods to increase faculty participation, including putting the necessary forms online, sending out mass reminder e-mails to instructors and making the deadline earlier in the semester to give bookstore personnel more time to contact instructors who had yet to participate.
"Last semester the deadline to have the forms in was October and by mid-December there were still a lot of forms incomplete," she said. "We even put the forms online to make the system as painless as possible and we still can't get professors to do their part."
Sparks said the only reason she could come up with for the lack of faculty response in the fall was that there was only one week between the Thanksgiving break and finals, leaving instructors stretched for time.
Sparks said she attempted to contact UNM's Faculty Senate to ask them for help in letting instructors know about their responsibilities in the program. She said her pleas went unanswered.
Beverly Burris, president of the Faculty Senate, the governing body of the University's faculty, refused to comment.
Still, Sparks said she hopes to meet with the Senate this semester to collaborate on improving the program's success.
That isn't enough for many students, though, who see the instructors' unwillingness to participate in the program as a sign of disrespect.
"We buy the expensive books the professors want to use and jump through every other hurdle they put in from of us," said UNM freshman Lisa Butler. "When they can't take five minutes to help us out, what are we supposed to think?"
Sparks said bookstore personnel are working on ways to curb the problem, including constantly updating a buy-back list to accommodate forms that were received late.
The bookstore will have a textbook buyback through this week, and buys books that are in high demand on a daily basis, she said.
Sparks said she understands faculty members are extremely busy and said she doesn't blame anybody for the program's poor outcome.
"We just want to improve this and all of our programs for the sake of the students," she said. "They are the most important component of this University and should be treated as such."
