Although 49er Shops is citing low demand for printed school catalogs, the physical copies are sold out and students are no longer able to buy them.
The 2,520 copies of the 2011-12 catalog that were printed this year have all been sold, according to 49er Shops Director Fred Neely. Last year, of the 2,634 copies printed, only 1,194 were sold. Despite a decrease in the amount of catalogs printed this year, there was an increase of 1,326 in sales.
Prior to the 2010-11 school year, SOAR provided catalogs to the students, so the bookstore printed 10,650 catalogs for 2009-10, but only 3,862 were purchased when SOAR discontinued the service. As a result, the remaining 800 pounds of catalogs were sent to the recycling center.
“Once SOAR stopped providing students with catalogs in their program, no one was buying [physical copies] from the bookstore,” said Cecile Lindsay, vice provost for Academic Affairs.
Since the online catalog was easier to look through and it was free, it made sense for the transition to occur, Lindsay said. It was also better financially, since Lindsay said her office was “in the red” in the 2009-10 school year due to the loss of sales.
“It’s not that we couldn’t afford to buy the catalogs,” said Jesse Ramirez, assistant director of SOAR. “The $62 fee adjustment [to pay for the program] is for food, use of facilities, putting up signs … not just direct supplies for students.”
Ramirez also said the SOAR program now emphasizes advising instead.
“Students prefer to look at online things,” Ramirez said. “Last year, we tried to cater more to the students and focus on their majors.”
Despite the lack of physical copies of the catalog, those who seek advising from the University Center for Undergraduate Advising won’t have to sit in front of a computer screen.
“We’ve worked with advisers and made some pages of the catalogs that can be printed easily,” Lindsay said.
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