Only a fraction of UC Berkeley faculty have historically complied with the Cal Student Store's deadlines to select textbooks for each semester, forcing students to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new books.

About 20 percent of faculty complied with the store's deadline to select textbooks for this fall semester, said Nadesan Permaul, director of the ASUC Auxiliary. If more professors complied on time, they could make available a greater number of used instead of new books at the store, he said.

During the spring semester, students saved $240,000 buying used instead of new books at the student store, according to a spring 2008 ASUC Senate bill. But Permaul said if more professors followed the deadlines, students could save hundreds of thousands of dollars more.

The deadlines-Oct. 15 to select textbooks for the spring, and April 15 for the fall-were put in place so the Cal Sstudent Store could find used copies of textbooks to sell to students at a lower price, Permaul said.

When faculty select textbooks past the deadlines, the student store often does not have time to find used copies,and must instead buy new, more expensive copies, said Jeff Deutsch, director of the Cal Student Store.

Some professors said that, even though they were aware of the deadlines, it was difficult to select their textbooks far enough ahead of time.

"In my own case, when I'm involved in one semester, it's hard to switch gears," said Mack Horton, a professor in East Asian Languages and Cultures.

But James Turner, an English professor, said he and his colleagues receive frequent reminders about the deadlines.

"Any individual professor is not going to want to do it any more than you want to do the dishes," he said.

At the ASUC's Aug. 27 meeting, mechanical engineering professor and chair of the Student Affairs Committee Dennis Lieu said the committee has discussed creating incentives for faculty who select textbooks on time, such as gift cards to Starbucks or pizza parlors.

While the student store's deadlines for textbook selection have been in place at the student store for at least 10 years, the compliance rate has always ranged somewhere between 17 and 23 percent, Permaul said.

When professors do not specify their textbook requirements by the deadlines, the student store cannot pay students in full when they sell back their used books, Deutsch said.

"If we have an adoption on that book for next semester, we're going to be able to pay you close to 50 percent of the list price. If not, you're looking at pennies on the dollar," he said.

Students could earn up to $100,000 more by selling back their textbooks to the student store if about 60 percent of faculty met the deadlines, Permaul said.

In April, the ASUC passed a bill that encouraged faculty to select their textbooks by the student store's deadlines.

"We need to make sure that faculty are aware of this and are meeting the deadline," said ASUC President Roxanne Winston.

Tags: TEXTBOOKS, ASUC