North Texas Daily

It’s that time again to start dropping $250+ on textbooks you may or may not open or for ones you will never look at again after the four months you spent skimming the first few chapters last minute before your online quiz is due at 11:59. How necessary are the overpriced textbooks and the way UNT “updates” their original editions so you can’t sell your used textbooks?

Not only is this unfair to the average student who can hardly afford housing costs, tuition or rent, but is harmful to the planet. What are you going to do with the dozens of now out-of-date textbooks that are packed full of unrecycled, dyed paper that you have no other choice but to simply throw out?

UNT may also be instructing its professors to only recommend the on-campus Barnes and Noble for textbooks, even if there are more affordable options online or at off-campus bookstores.

This concept is very lucrative for any corporation, but shouldn’t that corporation tell its community that it cares about the pocketbook of the consumer?

As a student, I paid an application fee just to apply, along with also paying for a tour and a mandatory orientation. In addition to these expenses, I also paid for a parking pass, tuition, school supplies, on-campus housing costs, transportation costs, a meal plan and textbooks I needed for my classes.

As students, we are investing in our futures. Ideally, all of these costs will pay off with some exemplary career that UNT will then expect a “thank you” for, ideally in the form of alumni donations. This will be expected of us after a decade of no longer being dependent on the self-serving corporation that gave you that printed degree in the first place.

If UNT insists on forcing its students to accumulate pounds of paper they are unable to sell back to the university or to local businesses to be resold, there should be an environmental plan in place for all of the wasteful paper that is piling up in the back of our closets. It is economically and environmentally irresponsible and unsustainable to waste the way UNT does.

It is any corporation or organization’s civic duty to treat consumers with respect and demonstrate transparency while conducting business. As students, it is our responsibility to voice our opinions, spread awareness and demand honesty from the university we have pride and spirit for.

We want to be proud of where we grew into adults, found our passions and gained wisdom and knowledge. We have invested enough of our dwindling funds to our university.

If UNT really cares for its students, it would have their interests in mind rather than adding another zero to Neal Smatresk’s salary.

Featured Illustration: Christopher De La Paz