For over a century, The Bookie has served WSU students, but now it primarily serves the interests of a corporation. In a struggle to pursue education despite tuition costs, many students find their back-to-school concerns compounded by overwhelming textbook prices.

“During my freshman and sophomore years, I would easily spend upwards of $700 from student loans on textbooks from The Bookie alone,” senior political science major Caleb Pletcher said.

Professors assign specific editions limited to a small number of publishers who have a lock on the market. At the beginning of each semester, The Bookie always has the newest textbook editions ready for sale.

“There’s a large demand, and we have no choice but to buy the books or fail our classes,” senior finance major Maximiliano Prado said.

Since its establishment in 1914, WSU students have owned The Bookie. The Students Book Corporation (SBC) board of directors oversees the running of The Bookie. The board is made up of eight student directors, two faculty directors and two administrative directors.

In 2004, SBC chose to lease the management of The Bookie to Barnes & Noble College Booksellers.

On Aug. 31, 2016, a letter to The Daily Evergreen editor by the former chairperson of SBC, Brian Bickel, argued the excellence and convenience of The Bookie.

“The bookstore is competitively priced — and in many cases — the more affordable option. We offer price matching for any textbook sold directly by Amazon.com,” Bickel wrote.

Students, however, argue that Amazon offers much more affordable book prices than The Bookie. Many of the textbooks they find on Amazon are not sold directly by Amazon, but by third-party retailers through the website. The Bookie’s price-matching program does not apply to these sellers.

“The price difference between Amazon sellers and the Bookie is ginormous. I never bought any supplies from the Bookie ever since my freshman year,” senior civil engineering major Claire Hovde said.

Bickel also stated that The Bookie contributes money to student organizations, who in turn, use it to support campus projects like WSU Green Bikes, campus crosswalks and the CUB.

SBC gives an annual dividend check to ASWSU in February. The past several years, the check has been around $85,000. In 2014, SBC gave ASWSU $100,000 to celebrate 100 years of student ownership of The Bookie.

“The annual dividend takes place when The Bookie student board gives us a percentage of money. The student board decides how much we receive each year,” ASWSU Director of Finance Jamie Lepper stated in an email.

Lepper wrote that the dividend varies each year, and it has not been decided yet what the amount will be for next year.

Many students find the SBC lease to Barnes & Noble College to be unethical because it exploits student needs. Capitalizing on the convenience of the store’s location on campus contradicts Bickel’s statement in his letter, “We exist because of students and for students.”

SBC has been justifying its lease to Barnes & Noble College through the annual dividend to ASWSU. The justification has gone beyond what students can financially handle. From student loans to low-income living, students would rather have affordable book prices than unnecessary projects.

WSU should not involve third-party corporations to manage its student-owned bookstore. Involving a third-party is profiting off students’ needs, which pushes them further into debt. This transforms the original purpose of a public university into a profit-based business.

“WSU certainly makes a disproportionate amount of money off the backs of students they already have been charging historically high tuition,” Pletcher said.