Economics Sourcebooks See Price Hike

Ec 10 administrators--who teach about 800 students every year about the necessity for open markets and free trade--seem to need a lesson in managing their own money.

After losing nearly $7,000 dollars on sourcebooks last year, the Social Analysis 10: "Principles of Economics," (Ec 10) office doubled the price of the spring sourcebook.

Students said, however, that the price hike is one of the course's many inconveniences this year.

In addition to being more expensive, the coursepacks are also further from the center of campus. Instead of being sold in the Science Center like most other courses, the materials are only available at BSF Business Printing on Mass. Ave.

The Ec 10 office has met with many challanges in its attempts to print sourcebooks in a reasonable time frame for an acceptable price.

Managing Money

The price of a sourcebook is determined by the use of copyrighted material and by printing costs.

The Ec 10 sourcebook that is now going for $61.40 sold for only $35 last spring.

Course Coordinator Gwendolyn A. Wong said that given mistakes made last year, the price hike was unavoidable.

Wong said that in determining the cost of last spring's sourcebook, she failed to take into account the increased cost of articles from the New York Times.

Unbeknownst to Wong, the Times had raised its permissions fee from 25 cents per page to one dollar per page, she says.

As a result, the Ec 10 department lost $7,000 dollars last spring.

And, while it was more convenient for students, selling the sourcebooks out of the Science Center was a fiasco as well, Wong said.

The Science Center distributors waited months before they reimbursed the Ec 10 departments for the sourcebooks.

"It was almost until the end of the fiscal year before we actually received any money from them," Wong said.

In an attempt not to lose any more money, Wong said the Ec 10 department then decided to use the Harvard Coop's publishers for last semester's sourcebook.

Wong said the Coop originally set the price of the sourcebooks at 50 dollars.

Two weeks before the start of the first semester, she says she was told that the Coop had miscalculated and the books would actually cost 85 dollars.

Wong said she was outraged.

"We told them that's impossible," Wong said. "It's going to be an uproar and students will be furious."

After negotiations with the Coop, Wong said they agreed to reduce the sourcebook back to the price that had been set originally.

But Wong said she was unable to negotiate an acceptable price with the Coop for the spring semester's sourcebook.

She said the Coop insisted on charging 95 dollars per sourcebook to make up for the money lost in the first semester.

This marked the end of the Ec 10 department's relationship with the Coop.

"We said, 'we're not playing with you any more,'" Wong said, "And we dropped them."

Wong said she found the best price around with BFS. And with the nearly 65 dollars charged per sourcebook, she says the Ec 10 department will break even for the first time in years.

"I'm sure there's a lot of things to be straightened out," Wong said. "Right now, we're just trying to find the best price for the students."

Supply and Demand

But BFS has had its own problems, said Facility Manager Robert S. McDonough.

Although Ec 10 generally enrolls about 800 students, the publishers had initially stocked only 50 books per day.

The mix-up resulted briefly in long lines and some confusion, McDonough said.

"Once I got involved and realized the magnitude, we increased production. The reality of the students was far more than we had expected." McDonough said. "On Friday alone we dealt with about 150 students."

And the publishing company now has over 550 sourcebooks printed and available, McDonough said.

But students say they are bothered by the brisk walk up to 1120 Mass Ave.

"I have no idea why they made us go there," said Meg R. Scheding '03. "People are annoyed and complaining about it, because most of them are freshmen and they really don't know where they're going."

When she finally found the building, Scheding said she was surprised by a lengthy line. She says she also had to fill out paperwork before she could purchase the sourcebook.

McDonough said it is necessary that all students fill out a form prior to purchase.

"We're requested to keep our records to prove to Harvard that we only sold the books to students in the course," he said. "Hopefully, the complaints will be few and far between."