It’s August in Ames, so it must be time to go back to school. Back to early morning classes, lost freshmen, and friends asking about your summer.

So what happened at Iowa State this summer?

Michael Simonson, the professor accused of sexually harassing several students, was fired by the administration. The Department of Residence unveiled their plan to tear down over half of the dorms on campus and replace them with apartment-style suites. Tim Floyd took off for Chicago.

President Jischke raised over $100 million for the school. Sigma Nu closed and half of the campus phone numbers changed prefixes.

All this and more took place in Ames over the summer. But before you are overcome by all the new and exciting developments at Iowa State, let me reassure you of one ISU constant.

The bookstores are still here, and they’re still swindling students.

We all know that textbooks are overpriced. We all know that publishing companies make fortunes exploiting financially strapped college students.

Students know it, parents know it, even professors know it. In fact, I once had a prof who apologized to a lecture hall full of students about the exuberant prices for the two required books.

Campus and University Book Stores both have to set prices for new textbooks in accordance with the prices at publishing companies. This is understood, and it’s not the reason so many students feel the uncontrollable urge to riot at the checkouts in the stores.

But even though the publishing companies can raise prices left and right, the two campus book stores don’t have to follow suit.

Both Campus and University Book Stores sell used books. This could be a great way around the publishing companies’ treachery.

But don’t be fooled. The prices on used books are just as ridiculous as the prices for new books.

One textbook I needed this year cost $40 new. The used price? $30. And this book wasn’t just a little bit, one-year-old, almost-new used book. It was a tattered, torn, highlighted used book. Only $10 depreciation for a torn cover and marked-up pages?

And many students may be under the impression that because there are two book stores, there is competition for student shoppers. But those students would be wrong, because oddly enough, prices at both book stores for used books are exactly the same.

I did some comparison shopping for my textbooks this year. One book I needed was selling for $34.90 used at UBS. So I went over to CBS, and found the book sold for the same price. Exactly $34.90. What a coincidence.

The book prices wouldn’t even be so bad if it wasn’t for the buy-back system at the bookstores. I sold a Sociology 134 book last year back to one of the bookstores, thinking that since it was a popular class, many students would need the book and I could get some money for it.

The grand total for my Soc book? $4.

Of course, the class was switching editions in another year so the book store didn’t need any more. Even this would be acceptable if it was the only situation in which students got ripped off selling books back. But it’s not.

Even books that will be used again the next year are worth almost nothing to students trying to sell them back. And yet the used books are sold for almost-new prices.

The book stores are like used car lots, only not as fair or honest.

So what can be done about the bookstores? Students complain every year, and every year it seems like maybe — just maybe — there might be an alternative to buying books at the two stores.

Last year, GSB flirted with a book exchange program. It’s not in place right now, but it may be discussed again next semester. This should be one of the most important issues on the GSB docket this year, since it’s a practical problem that actually affects students.

So hopefully next year, we can discontinue the time-honored ISU tradition of being screwed by the bookstores.

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Sara Ziegler is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She is managing editor of the Daily.