My textbooks for this semester cost about $525. I can’t really complain about that, seeing as how they cost $700 last semester.

What I can complain about is how I had to pay for them. I had planned on browsing the internet for the best possible deals on books.

This would be my first semester trying this and Amazon would be my friend. I had planned on coming away from it not feeling so poor and violated as I did at USI’s bookstore these past few semesters.

I was denied this feeling. I am a Financial Aid student. I wouldn’t be in college if it weren’t for the money I get from FAFSA.

I also receive a refund check every semester to cover extra expenses. I depend on this check to buy my textbooks. I thought that I would take the refund check and shop online. I was wrong.

Instead, I was told by the Bursar’s office that I would not receive my check in the mail until three weeks after classes had started. I was taken aback when I heard this news.

I thought: “Three weeks without books? Goodbye college, hello minimum-wage McDonald’s.” But the Bursar reassured me. She told me that I could take my Eagle Access card and use it at the bookstore.

It would take the money directly out of my unsent refund check. Instead of paying $358 for my books, I was back to paying $525. Bookstores have a whole mess of fees that are added onto our backs.

There’s maintenance, shipping, utilities, employee salaries, etc, etc… all of these factors are included into the final price of our books. I wonder why we have to pay for bookstore employee salaries, isn’t that the university’s job?

To say the least, I was infuriated. My plans of penny-pinching had been thwarted and I was sucking on the USI bookstore tit once again. How was this fair? Even if I had signed up for direct-deposit (which I hadn’t) I still would not have received the money in time to hit up eBay.

This is a scam, a masterfully executed scam targeting those low-income students like myself. I would call for the immediate amendment of this system working against us, but I know it would be in vain. USI makes way too much money in the bookstore.

Raping students wallets one book at a time. I had no choice but to give in. I sucked it up and paid the extra money and went on my way. I walked out of the store with books in hand, feeling as degraded and cheated as ever.