The Student Association this semester is attempting to boost faculty and staff awareness of the positives to submitting book orders for next semester early in anticipation of the deadline on Thursday, Nov. 3.

If faculty members turn in orders early enough — called early textbook adoption — the University Bookstore can pay more for books it buys back at the end of the semester and can find more used books, leading to reduced costs at the beginning of the next semester.

If the faculty members do not use the book again or if they do not place an order in time, the bookstore buys back the books for used-book wholesalers and generally will pay about 20 percent of the new-book price, said Marc Sanders, manager of the Course Book Department at the bookstore.

To boost awareness this semester, the SA has held table events, sent letters of reminders to professors and department chairs and done chalk writing on campus sidewalks.

“A lot of kids go and tell their professors right away,” said Student Association (SA) President Russ Rueden. “Students are trying to own it a little more.”

The goal date to get orders in is Thursday, Rueden said. He said the University Bookstore has been working in cooperation with the SA to boost awareness.

Sanders said the bookstore will be hosting a Course Materials Adoption Fair in the Union Ballroom from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday.

“We’re hoping this event will kind of galvanize it,” Sanders said. “I think in the next week or two, we’ll get a lot more (orders).”

Last year the Student Association compiled a list that detailed which departments were compliant in placing book orders early. In the survey, 28 of the 82 departments did not turn any orders in early.

Sanders said the best way to determine if the boost in awareness is helping in the early textbook adoption would be to judge the book buy back in December.

“The real savings is the re-adoption,” he said.

Often faculty members know which books they are going to use, but they don’t place the orders with the bookstore, Sanders said.

“There’s no actual mechanism to hold them (faculty members) accountable that way,” Rueden said.

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