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BOOKS
Students need more options

The will of the students, having once been defeated this semester in the Café à la cart fiasco, suffered another setback when the administration said a Student Government Association proposal to create a bookselling Web site violates the university’s contract with Barnes and Noble.

The university, apparently, has an agreement with the bookstore giant guaranteeing no on-campus competition. So the bookstore’s TCU-monopoly over textbooks will continue, meaning students can expect to sell back their books for less than market value.

SGA members are understandably upset that one of their best ideas in years was thwarted. President Brad Thompson says he has worked on the project for nearly a year. (That said, we think it would have been wise for SGA to check if it had the authority to create such a site before it began work on one. That’s just basic homework.)

Whether SGA can overcome this roadblock remains to be seen. But even if things don’t work out, there are steps we hope students take to give the bookstore some needed competition.

More and more students have begun buying, selling and trading books on TCU Announce. Thus far, those who work on the third floor of Sadler Hall have not banned the practice — creating a loophole we should all take advantage of.

And the best part about TCU Announce: it’s free.