Bookstore changes refund policy after student opposition

"We did reverse our refund policy," said Cindy Hawk, assistant director of the University of Arizona Associated Students Bookstore. "We're acting in the students' best interests."

After marked student opposition, the bookstore is offering a chance to get cash for an estimated 1,200 store credits issued between Jan. 25 and Feb. 10.

For up to one year, students can bring store credits and a University of Arizona identification card to the bookstore's customer service desk for a refund. Students now buying texts have 24 hours to return the book in order to receive a refund.

Those who returned texts Thursday and Friday received a refund in the original payment form.

The credit-in-lieu-of-cash policy raised opposition from many students and evoked a personal apology from bookstore director Frank Farias, who was out of town last week and unavailable for comment.

"The U of A Bookstore management wants to assure our customers that we heard your objections to a recent change in our textbook refund policy," Farias stated Thursday in an Arizona Daily Wildcat advertisement. "The policy will be modified so that it will be immediately more responsive to your needs."

History senior Daniel Long said students are entitled to cash refunds.

"I think they should get their money back," he said. "Books are outrageously expensive."

Farias stated in his letter that the old policy was changed not to "alter our commitment to students, but was a direct effort to limit abuses of our policies."

"The bookstore must function in the most financially responsible form in order to protect its investments," the letter states.

The old policy, which began at the beginning of the semester, offered store credit instead of cash or credit card reimbursements to students who return textbooks after Jan. 25.

Some students already have used their credits because of a recent bookstore sale, Hawk said.

"We've had some students using them, and some getting their cash back," she said.

Stephanie Corns can be reached via e-mail at Stephanie.Corns@wildcat.arizona.edu.