As college students, we have to pay for a lot of things. From tuition and room and board, down to the small things like lofts, bike lockers, Sapling Homework, parking passes and more. Basically, there is a lot of paying going on in college.

So, when I read the email sent out by Residence Life titled “Final Reminders,” which included a lengthy section on textbook returns, I initially wasn’t impressed with their recommendation to pay once again.

For those of you who do not know what I’m talking about or did not read entire email (don’t worry I didn’t either until I learned of this), it states “UW-Platteville prefers that for safety reasons textbooks and other items be mailed, at student expense, to: [UW-Platteville Address.]”

Effectively, the University wants students to mail their textbooks back to campus at our expense.

To most students, I expect this to be a “groan and roll your eyes” moment.

Granted, the University also lists two other reasonable ways to return your textbooks. One can either drop them off at the return boxes around campus or they can visit during a textbook drop-off day at Velzy Commons in Ullsvik Hall, which I foresee most local students taking advantage of.

However, for the many students who live several hours away from campus, mail will be the primary option for those who still have textbooks.

Thankfully, the University recommends using USPS “Media Mail to ship, as it is quite a cost-effective method to move books. a 14-pound parcel (based on four 3.5 pound textbooks) costs about 10 dollars to ship.

Not to side too closely with the University (god forbid we do that), but this makes a decent amount of sense.

The students who received a sizable refund from the University likely live a decent distance away meaning that mail is the easiest option, and due to the refund, they, in theory, have a couple extra bucks to spend. Those who did not receive a significant refund likely live either in an apartment near campus or commute, which means getting to campus to drop books off is easy.

Now, obviously, there are some holes in this logic. Plenty of students who live near campus also got a sizable refund and plenty of students who didn’t live hours away. Plus, I’d assume most students would like to save every red cent from their refund for next year’s tuition.
However, as a general rule, the logic works out to why UW-Platteville decided to make paid shipping the “recommended option.” Its just unfortunate that they did not include an option that takes into account greater factors.