Friday, Feb. 17, 2006
Loquitur The
Features Winter recreation page 9
Cabrini College’s Student Newspaper
www.theLoquitur.com
Radnor, Pa.
Sports Torino 2006 page 14 Vol XLVII, Issue 16
High textbook cost has students playing lotto in bookstore LAURA VAN DE PETTE NEWS EDITOR LCV722@CABRINI.EDU The bookstore at Cabrini College is bursting with activity and the cash register is no slouch either. Many students are continuing to fork up the big bucks while a new trend shows students are refusing to purchase textbooks and are risking failing a class to save cash. Students wind their way through the cramped space holding stacks of books three feet high with their knuckles white from the heavy weight of the pristine textbooks.
Many students try to add-up the price of their textbooks in their head while the maze-like line inches forward to the register of doom. Just how much will all this cost? With textbook prices soaring, and fewer used editions in circulation, students are bearing the brunt of expensive books. But many students are bypassing the aisles of textbooks and grabbing a candy bar and Coke for $2.25 rather than the biology book they need for class that will set them back $152. As students come back to campus and get their spring semester assignments, many will pause in the bookstore and make
a choice. They can buy everything on the syllabus or take a chance. Liz Wackerle, a junior health and excercise science major, said, “Unless you find some good bargains, the price students pay for textbooks, especially the ones not needed for their major is unnecessarily high.” Textbook prices have been rising at double the rate of inflation for the past two decades, according to a Government Accountability Office study. In a nationwide study, 40 percent of students surveyed by the State Council of Higher Education said they sometimes just do without. “That’s been increasing,” said Jennifer Libertowski of the National Association of College Stores; recently, the group found that nearly 60 percent of students nationwide choose not to buy all the course materials,” as reported in the Washington Post. Textbook prices almost tripled from 1986 to 2004, the Government Accountability Office report found, in large part because of the increasing cost of developing the materials that now often come with
JESS WEBB/PHOTO EDITOR
The above Cabrini bookstore sign displays the high cost of textbooks for a chemistry class. The textbooks for this one class total over $200.
TEXTBOOKS, page 3
‘Dead Man Walking’ author to speak Monday Sister Helen Prejean began her prison ministry in 1981 when she dedicated her life to the poor of New Orleans. While living in the St. Thomas housing project, she became pen pals with Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenagers, sentenced to die in the electric chair of Louisiana’s Angola State Prison. Upon Sonnier’s request, Sister Helen visited him repeatedly as his spiritual adviser. In doing so, her eyes were opened to the Louisiana execution process. Sister Helen turned her experiences into a book that not only made the 1994 American Library Associates Notable Book List, it was also nominated for a 1993 Pulitzer Prize. “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of
COURTESY OF SISTER PREJEAN’S OFFICIAL WEBSITE WWW.PREJEAN.ORG
Sister Helen Prejean, author will be speaking in the Grace Hall Atrium on Monday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. All members of Cabrini community are invited. Her book, “Dead man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States,” is available in the cabrini bookstore.
the Death Penalty in the United States” was number one on the New York Times Best Seller List
for 31 weeks. According to Sister Helen Prejean’s official website: www.prejean.org.
KRT
Many repeat drunk drivers have not had to deal with the consequences of their actions with crashes like the one pictured above.This may be why they continue to drive drunk.
Students drive drunk despite consequences KATHERINE BRACHELLI ASST. NEWS EDITOR KB727@CABRINI.EDU Most Cabrini students were not surprised to find that college students who already suffered the negative consequences of drinking and driving did not hesitate to hop in a car and do it again. However, the college students who repeatedly drink and drive and have not dealt with those negative consequences are less likely to participate in drinking and driving, as reported in a recent study done by Journal Studies of Alcohol. Jackie Hiester, a junior special education major, said, “It doesn’t surprise me at all that college students would get in to a car and drive drunk already knowing all the bad things that could happen to them.” Although Hiester always tries to make sure that her and her friends have assigned a designated driver before hitting up the bars in Philadelphia, some of her friends have chosen a different route before visiting the bars. Hiester reflected on the event when her friend, who she wishes to remain anonymous, participated in the drinking and driving trend that has become more common among college students, while knowing all the negative consequences. Hiester’s friend volunteered to be the designated driver as a bunch of his friends cruised in and out of bars in Manayunk. Although he was previously involved in a drunken driving incident where he was penalized
for his actions, it did not stop him from disregarding his role as designated driver a second time. After a few drinks in the bar, he wanted to be a gentleman by getting the car for everyone since it was raining. Due to the vast amount of alcohol he had, he was unable to keep clear focus on driving and drove straight into a guardrail. Since this was the second time Hiester’s friend was caught driving under the influence, it held penalties that were far more severe than the first time. Hiester’s friend had his license taken away from him for three years. He is no longer able to attend culinary school because he has no means of transportation and he has caused both his mother and brother, who are cops in New Jersey, great embarrassment. Hiester said, “It’s a shame that even though he knows the consequences of drinking and driving, he still would not hesitate to do it again.” According to Denis M. McCarthy, assistant professor of psychological sciences at the University of Missouri in Columbia, there are many factors that contribute to an individual drinking and driving while knowing the negative consequences. McCarthy said, “Part of the drunken driving risk factors such as disinhibition, high hostility and sensation seeking still remain elevated even after an individual DRUNK DRIVING, page 3