Along with the inevitability of death and taxes, financially tapped students get to stand in endless lines to buy high priced textbooks -- except the latter comes twice a year.
However, there is now an opportunity at SF State for one student to help make buying books a little less painful by becoming a member of the Franciscan Shops Bookstore Board of Directors.
Book rebates are a prime example of what the board decides on. According to current student board-member Marie-Lorraine Feria Mallare, the board doesn't actually set retail prices of textbooks. She said the bookstore is a non-profit organization, so the board can decide to take profits and in turn give students a rebate on book purchases.
Bookstore General Manager Rob Strong said last year the bookstore generated $15.2 million in total revenues. After paying operating costs, which include inventory and operating expenditures, the bookstore had a surplus of $417,580. Strong said the board decided to distribute $230,000, or 55 percent of the net surplus, back in book rebates. The remainder of the surplus was invested in a state operated investment pool.
Strong estimated that this year the bookstore surplus would be approximately $600,000. He said the board would decide in August on how much of the surplus would be rebated back next spring.
Since the board decided to initiate book rebates four years ago, students have received an average discount of nine percent on book purchases.
"Every little bit helps," Mallare, a senior international relations major, said.
To make attending the university more financially accessible, Mallare said students need to become more involved in campus operations.
"SF State is for the students and should be run by the students," Mallare said. "The students don't have much say. It's time for students to get out there. There should be a student voice on every entity on campus.
"We really need a student," she said, about the year long position on the board that is required to meet four times a year. "It's really tough, no one applies. I wish they were more involved."
Maxwell Leung is the other student board-member. He said the position helps one understand how the different entities on campus interact and in turn, how that interaction affects students.
"First and foremost, you learn how the campus bookstore works. For anyone that doesn't work there, it's a pretty immense operation," Leung said.
The three students that sit on the 11 member board possess the same voting power as their faculty and staff colleagues.
Mallare said working on the board is a chance to develop real world skills.
"A student on this board learns diplomacy. You can get what you want with that," Mallare said. "It really helps to know those things. Everybody can learn."
The approximately $7 million renovation of the Cesar Chavez Student Center starting this summer is another project the bookstore board will be involved with. Strong said the board will make a decision on changes that will effect the cash register area of the bookstore, making it less congested at the beginning of each semester. Strong estimated the remodeling of the bookstore will be $1 million, with the money coming from bookstore operating surpluses.
Two of the three board positions are filled from the student body, while the third is appointed by the Associated Students president. Leung's position will end when the new AS president makes his choice.
The candidate must have a 3.0 grade point average and can not be a member of the Student Union Governing Board or Associated Student officer. Perks include a 10 percent discount on books, a 20 percent discount on software and a 30 percent discount on other bookstore merchandise.
Strong said a decision will be made in late May.