Coop Blunder Postpones Arrival of Gov. Textbooks

Students taking Government courses which use books printed by Congressional Quarterly (CQ) Press will have to go to Lamont to do their reading as an administrative blunder at the Harvard Coop has delayed the books from reaching the shelves.

Although delays are often the fault of professors who order the books too late or of the publisher, the Coop management is behind this impasse.

Although professors for Government 1346, "The Electoral Process in America," Government 90ss, "Legislative Leadership," Government 1385, "The Welfare State in America?" and Government 1540, "The American Presidency," placed their orders on time, CQ Press ignored the requests because the Coop had an outstanding bill of $400 from the publishing house.

Assistant Professor of Government Mark A. Peterson '83, who teaches Government 1540, said he submitted the orders for three books to the Coop last July, but by September 1, only one of the titles was on the Coop shelves.

When Peterson learned that the book were not yet in the Coop, one of his teaching fellows called the store to find out the status of the books, said the course assistant who asked not to be identified.

While the Coop discovered that the problem with one of the missing books was a change in publication houses, the course assistant had to telephone CQ Press to uncover the story behind the absence of the second text, "Presidency and Political Systems."

Peter Rozakis, a CQ employee, said yesterday that the book orders were not filled because the Coop had a bill of $400 outstanding since September 1986. CQ Press asked the Coop to paythe bill "several times," Rozakis said, but nopayments were received.

Rozakis said that the company policy forbidsextending credit if a bill has been outstandingfor more than six months.

CQ Press recommended that Peterson order thetextbooks through another store, but other HarvardSquare bookstores will rarely fill class orders, asituation which gives the Coop a virtual monopolyon book orders, the course assistant said.

"When push came to shove," and CQ refused tofill the text orders this fall, the Coop finallyagreed to pay the bill and CQ sent them the order,Rozakis said. Although the course assistant saidCoop employees told him the shipment had arrived,the books had not reached the shelves as ofclosing time yesterday.

"It's an absolute outrage," said the courseassistant of the delay, adding that it has causeda "tremendous hassle."

While some students said they were adjusting tothe lack of books, others said that because themissing book was assigned for the first week ofthe semester, they are having difficulty keepingup with the reading.

"It's an inconvience," said Chad Johnson, whoadded that he has not started doing the readingfor the class because of the lack of books.

No one at the Coop was available yesterday tocomment on the CQ situation, but according to Coopbook-buyer Dan Delellis, shortages of certaintexts are "something you really can't do anythingabout" because of over-enrollment and lateordering by professors