A new federal law aimed at helping students access more affordable course materials went into effect in July. Photo Illustration by Megan Gartner.

A new federal law aimed at helping students access more affordable course materials went into effect in July.

The law, which is part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, requires textbook publishers to provide detailed information about the prices of textbooks, the copyright dates of the three previous editions, the revisions of content in the new edition and how the textbook is available in other formats, like online.

“I paid about $700 for textbooks only for this semester,” said Ellie Rivera, junior Elementary Education major. “I am a little bit excited about this law. If the textbooks will be a little bit cheaper, I will be a little bit excited.”

Students usually pay several hundred dollars for their textbooks every year depending on their majors.

“I paid close to $500 for my textbooks. I think the textbooks are higher than what they need to be right now,” said Joel Wilburn, senior secondary education major. “My major is not as expensive as Nursing or Business.”

Professors also think the textbooks are getting expensive.

“Textbooks in general, I think (are) very expensive. Over the years, it has become more and more expensive,” said Alexis Downs, associate professor of Accounting and Information systems.

The effect of the new textbook law on decreasing the price of textbooks is limited.

“I think it will have some sort of effect. But, it won’t be perfect, it won’t drive down the price as much as students would like them to do,” Wilburn said.

Mike McRell, manager of the Memorial Union Bookstore, thinks that the new law is not going to lower the textbook prices immediately.

“Because the publishers have the price set at a certain point, and they are not going to drop the price just because the information is out there,” he said.“The law doesn’t tell them that they can charge only certain amount. The law just said they had to provide the information.”

However, the change in the law has affected the way the campus bookstore does business.

“We had to update our website and be ready for July, because we are the distributor of that information for the university,” McRell said.

Downs said this new law is helpful for faculty who are choosing textbooks to teach from.

“The publishers will provide more information about the different versions of the textbooks, so I will know more about the options,” Downs said.

The quality of the textbook’s content is always a professor’s first concern, she said. At the same time, a lot of professors are aware of the prices of textbooks.

“The problem for tax textbooks is that the government changes the tax law every year, so I will need to change the tax textbook every year,” Downs said. “Price is really important. The textbook I am using right now costs about half as much as the book that I used two years ago.”

The new law is intended to encourage students, faculty, administrators, bookstores and publishers to work together to decrease the price of the college textbook by enhancing transparency.

“The publisher cares about the price most.If it’s pricier, they will get more money,” Rivera said.

McRell also believes that the publishers control the textbook price.

“That’s publisher’s business. They are out there to make money,” he said. “(But) I do think the textbooks are expensive.”

Students will have more options to get their textbooks, after getting the detailed information provided by publishers. They can buy new books, used books, digital books or rent books, either in the bookstores or online when planning their textbook budget.

“I don’t think there is any one way to control the textbook price,” McRell said. “I think students have to have their voice.”

Han Yan/The Bulletin

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McRell

For Mike McRell, manager for the Memorial Union bookstore, finding one’s true calling is a matter of taking chances.

McRell, who earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1991, said he initially came to Emporia State with dreams of becoming a teacher.

“I came to Emporia State to be an educator,” McRell said. “But after doing observations, I found out that teaching was not where I was really going to land. I decided to look into the business program and I really liked what they had to offer. I enjoyed the classes, I enjoyed the instructors and I liked the fact that, after half a semester, the faculty knew who I was… I wasn’t just another number.”

McRell said he is particularly appreciative of the one-on-one instruction he received at ESU.

“I actually started school at Wichita State,” McRell said. “I had one professor for three semesters in a row, and that professor did not know me by the end of the third semester because the classes there are so large. I wanted a smaller, more intimate learning environment, and that’s what I found at Emporia State.”

An employee of the Barnes & Noble corporation, McRell said that many people are unaware that the campus bookstore is run by the retail book giant.

“Barnes & Noble contracts with the university to run the bookstore,” McRell said. “With that comes a lot of extras for the university that people don’t necessarily know about. For example, we give $25,000 to student scholarships every year, which goes directly to the students. That does not include the amount of items we donate to student organizations to help support their programming… we’re willing to do just about anything to help a student organization if they come and ask us.”

McRell said that he enjoys working in the college atmosphere.

“Working in a college bookstore keeps you young to some degree,” McRell said. “Being in the college environment allows you to interact with younger people and understand that there’s a different viewpoint from a younger perspective, as opposed to my perspective.”

Jamie Risley, freshman undeclared major, said that her ¬¬¬¬experiences with McRell have all been positive.

“He’s a nice guy, he’s very friendly,” Risley said. “He asks me if I need anything every time I go into the bookstore.”

McRell, who worked as a student employee at the bookstore in years past, said he is a believer in the value of student work experiences.

“I think that getting work experience while you’re going to school is invaluable,” McRell said. “Employers are looking for someone that has the fortitude and the gumption to go out there, hold down a job, get good grades… it shows a lot when students can pull off both.”

McRell regularly employs student workers to assist in the day-to-day operations of the bookstore.

“There’s only seven of us who work there regularly, and two of those positions are filled by students,” McRell said. “During our buyback period and during the beginning of the school year, we hire extra students. We usually end up with between five and seven student employees, so they’re a pretty good percentage of the students that make up our employee roster.”

Gracy Baker, junior elementary education major and student employee at the book store, said that she enjoys working for McRell.

“I’ve worked for Mike for about three years now,” Baker said. “I think he’s great. He handles his job very well. He’s very easy to work with and very understanding and very caring… and we all like his little dances that he does. Halloween is always a fun time around the bookstore. He was Slash from Guns N’ Roses last year.”

McRell was born in upstate New York and has lived in a variety of places throughout his life, including Canada and Germany. However, he said that he considers the Midwest his home.

“The place I call home more than anywhere is the Nebraska-Kansas area,” McRell said. “My father retired in Nebraska, so that’s where I spent the majority of my middle school to high school years, but my family was all from southeast Kansas. My mom and dad were both from Chanute.”

McRell said that he believes his international experiences have helped him appreciate the diversity to be found at ESU.

McRell said he encourages students to venture out of their comfort zones during their time in college.

“In this day and age, you need to get out there and try a little bit of everything,” McRell said. “You never know what you’re going to find that you might end up liking… Don’t turn your nose up at something just because you don’t think it’s where you belong. You may try something and find a career path that you never knew was out there for you.”

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Looking for a good ghost story? Emporia is home to many allegedly haunted places, including the William Allen White House, Bird Bridge, the Emporia Country Club, the Memorial Union and Albert Taylor Hall.

According to “Historic Haunted America” by Michael Norman and Beth Scott, one story about Albert Taylor Hall says that Albert Taylor took a lead role in a production about 100 years ago. Afraid that he would be late for one of the performances, Taylor got into a car accident en route to the university. When the curtain opened, Taylor’s ghost stood on the stage in a blood-soaked costume.

“Historic Haunted America” debunks the legend that Albert Taylor haunts the hall, stating that research done in 1983 by Deborah Anne Heffley showed that Albert Taylor resigned from ESU in 1901 and became president at James Milliken University in Illinois, which is where “he presumably died.”

Heffley found several other stories of ghosts in Albert Taylor Hall, though none of the ghosts were Albert Taylor. One story, confirmed by Indy Dambro, public service executive for university facilities, was about an experience a foreman had in 1966: “After turning off the basement lights, he pulled a cigarette from his pocket. He heard a match strike and a voice said, ‘Do you need a light?’ The foreman dropped his cigarette and ran.”

The production that was taking place was “Dracula.”

Dambro said that no one has ever died in Albert Taylor Hall, despite the stories.

Roger Heineken, administrative officer for the Memorial Union, says that the ghost that roams Albert Taylor Hall could be Franklin Gilson, who created The Gilson Players, a theater troupe. According to ESU news archives, the ghost of Frank Gilson occasionally appears on the catwalk or in the catacombs of Albert Taylor Hall late at night.

One ghost who might also haunt the ESU campus is Martha.

“We don’t know if the spirit is male or female, but we call it Martha,” Heineken said.

From 1925 to about 1950, single female faculty members lived on the third floor of the Memorial Union, now The Bulletin and Sunflower offices. Stories say that Martha haunts that area as well as the Memorial Union Bookstore. There have been reports of doors slamming, lights going on and off and objects being moved.

“The adding machine that sits on my desk is the third adding machine I’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Mike McRell, manager of the Memorial Union Bookstore.

McRell said that he would put a new role of tape in the adding machine on his desk and the next morning, the tape would be all over the floor.

“One night, I was just sitting there and my adding machine just started going in front of me and I was like ‘okay,’” McRell said. “I just started freaking out and it wasn’t just zeros, it was actually adding things… I was like, ‘okay, Martha, knock it off’ and it just stopped.”

McRell said that he purchased a new adding machine after the incident and the same thing occurred again.

“I’ve just kind of learned to live with Martha,” McRell said. “Martha is Martha. I just go with it and survive.”

He said that he believes Martha likes to move his water mug on occasion.

“There are times where I know I’ve set it down somewhere – just come back with it and it’s gone,” McRell said

However, McRell said that he believes Martha’s actions are playful and not sinister.

One off-campus site that may be haunted is the Emporia Country Club.

“The club house has seen extensive renovations and additions over the years but at the heart of the building is the 1913 structure,” Heineken said. “The club was literally in the country when it was built outside the city limits.”

Heineken said that the club allegedly became haunted after people died there during the flu pandemic in the early twentieth century.

“When the Flu pandemic hit Emporia, the club house was re-purposed as an infirmary, remote from the city center,” Heineken said. “Emporia had inadequate hospital facilities in those days for the need created by the flu epidemic. It is probable (that) dozens died while cared for in this facility.”

Heineken said that he spoke with the catering supervisor at the Country Club about the ghosts and she thinks there are four that haunt the building. Most of the occurrences include objects being moved around and lights flickering on and off.

The Rocky Ford Bridge, also known as Bird Bridge, is located about five miles southeast of Emporia. The rust-colored, graffiti covered bridge became known as a haunted location after the death of Sandy Bird in July 1983.

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, Bird’s husband, Rev. Tom Bird, was found guilty of first degree murder in her death. Sandy Bird’s body was found under the bridge near her station wagon. According to Heineken, she had been a graduate assistant in the math department at ESU.

The area around the bridge is still used for parties. Heineken said that the bridge likely became a party scene after a movie about the Bird murder was filmed on location. The movie, “Murder Ordained,” came out in 1987 and starred Keith Carradine, Kathy Bates, John Goodman and M. Emmet Walsh.

On both sides of the bridge, there are brown shards from glass bottles and other trash. There is also evidence of a recent campfire even though “No Trespassing” signs are on display. The only sounds are of birds calling and of water tripping over rocks below.

Red Rocks, the nickname of the William Allen White House, located at 927 Exchange, is said to be haunted. Among those who supposedly haunt the house are Teddy the Terrier, the White family dog, and Mrs. Gillette, the original owner’s wife who reportedly committed suicide on the second floor of house. Some also believe that White’s daughter, Mary White, also haunts the house.

According to Nick Gronseth, Kansas Historical Society site administrator for the William Allen White House, Mary White was in a horse riding accident near the corner of Merchant and Twelfth. She was waving to someone she knew when she hit her head on a tree branch and was fatally injured. She died a few houses down the street from her home. William Allen White wrote the famous eulogy “Mary White” in August of 1921.

Gronseth said that the White family dog, a terrier named Teddy, has also been seen by some in a window on the first floor of the house.

In the article “William Allen White: Haunting Memories,” by Kelley Weiss, members of the White-Walker family have reported hearing the dog in the house.

“In the middle of the night distinct footsteps coming up the stairs echoed through the house and started down the hallway towards their bedroom,” the article says. “The dog came into the bedroom and lay down next to the bed. David Walker clearly remembers that night in Emporia when he stayed in William Allen White’s house for a night with his wife Barbara White Walker, William Allen White’s granddaughter. The only problem is that when the dog came into the room Walker couldn’t see it and neither could his wife. Walker insists the dog was a ghost.”

Heineken said that there have been reports of neighbors who have seen Teddy the Terrier in a window. Heineken said that during a tour of the house, a little girl asked if a dog lived there. The docent of the house at the time said no and asked the girl to describe the dog. She described a dog similar to Teddy and said that she had seen it when she had ridden her bike past the house one day.

Although he said he has never seen any apparitions in the house, Gronseth said, he heard strange noises and talking last year around Halloween, only to find that no one was in the house with him.

“There are some creakings and bumps and stuff,” Gronseth said. “I guess it’s the heater. I like to think that it might be the ghosts.”

Kelsey Ryan/Bulletin

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Attention all business and science majors – here is your first lesson: books aren’t cheap.

“It seems that the business, science and mathematics are all the most expensive,” said Darcy Finical, store manager of Textbook Corner. “The prices are set by the publishers, so I think that those are the ones that they’ve targeted… Across the board, you see that those are the most expensive ones.”

Books paired with software are especially prone to higher prices.

“We had a book that was packaged with software this summer for accounting that was $240,” said Mike McRell, manager of the Memorial Union bookstore. “That was the most expensive book I’ve ever seen.”

According to the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2008, publishers must tell teachers about the copyrights of previous editions within 10 years, the prices the publisher would charge at the bookstore and any major revisions that the textbooks have undergone. The act also requires publishers to sell bundled items separately as well as bundled.

Finical believes that the bundles allow students to buy the material more cheaply than if the materials were only sold as separate items.

“The chemistry package and a math bundle that people going into elementary education use are both almost $200,” Finical said. “That is cheaper than it was when the components were split apart. The publisher reps worked with the professors to bundle everything together to give it a lower price.”

There is industry standard of a 25 percent markup to the list price of all new books. According to Finical, a used book is going to be 25 percent cheaper than a new book. However, some believe that publishing companies are trying to get rid of the market for used books.

“(The publishers) do it so that the new textbooks are out there and you can’t sell used books because they want to eliminate the used book market,” McRell said. “But that’s not our goal. Our goal is to have a used book market…We’re not the evil empire we’re made out to be sometimes. I would say that about any bookstore because there are rules that are attached to how we do it and we can’t venture from those rules.”

According to McRell, the 25 percent markup is set by the National Association of College Stores. However, not all of that markup is pure profit.

“Out of that margin, we have to pay payroll, any losses that we have, any damaged books, any theft,” McRell said. “So, by the time we get done, on textbooks, we don’t make a lot. If you’re going to make something, you’re going to make it in volume. You don’t make it off of per book because we maybe make 5 percent on a book.”

McRell wanted students to know that the bookstore does not purposefully drive up book costs. In fact, McRell would rather have an entire used book inventory and never have a need to switch book editions.

“Life is much easier if we don’t (switch editions),” McRell said. “But that’s not the reality of what we’re living in and so publishers change publications.”

Finical and McRell agree that there has been a decrease in new textbook sales, but McRell doesn’t know if that is because of a decrease in enrollment or due to more people buying books elsewhere. Finical is unsure if that decrease is because of the increased popularity of buying books online.

“It’s hard to say, but there has been a little bit of a decrease,” Finical said. “Everybody is more technological.”

Textbook Corner, which has been in operation for nearly 17 years, started a loyalty card in May, allowing students who spend $150 to save $5 on a future purchase. Over 1200 students are currently signed up for the loyalty card.

Although the Memorial Union bookstore has been in existence since Emporia State was founded, it did not become affiliated with Barnes & Noble until the mid 1980s. The MU bookstore has a contract with the university and pays a commission to the university based on sales. That commission helps subsidize student organizations and scholarships. MU Bookstore net sales are approximately $2.2 million per year.

“(For) every dollar that comes through here, there is a percent that comes back through to the university, and it’s about 10 percent,” McRell said. ” That’s a lot of money…we are here to support the university and we are here to support student services.”

Kelsey Ryan/Bulletin

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