By way of a 13-6 vote, the City Council passed an ordinance amendment Tuesday night that regulates the sale of secondhand textbooks.
After a long night of debate, the council majority agreed the amendment was necessary because, as Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said, ""Believe it or not, this is a big deal for universities.""
Ald. Eli Judge, District 8, headed the amendment but did not create the idea of pushing stores for stricter regulations on textbook sales. It was originally an idea from former City Council President Austin King. However, Judge made the amendment more feasible for members by tweaking words and requirements.
The ordinance will become effective July 1. Judge said the only significant change students will see is they will have to provide some form of identification when selling their books back in the fall. Novels do not fall under this ordinance.
""The ordinance amendment tries to help aide in trying to curb the amount of textbook theft here on campus,"" Judge said, adding that stricter record keeping will help police more quickly identify thieves.
Judge also said secondhand-textbook stores such as the Underground Textbook Exchange and A Room of One's Own will be required to ask students for a driver's license or student ID because those forms provide photo identification.
For students to get an idea of what to expect, they need look no further than the University Bookstore, which already requires students to produce an ID to sell back textbooks.
Some of the City Council members in opposition to the amendment said it was an unnecessary condition to add because police and storeowners are already working well together to stop textbook theft.
Still, a majority of the alders did not come to grips with the opposition's argument.
""This is not a magic bullet, this is not going to end theft of textbooks,"" said Ald. Paul Skidmore, District 9, but he said it will allow students to feel safer and police to keep a closer eye on things.
Throughout the night, discussion arose several times over the exact wording in the amendment, as well. One of the big problems council members had was the wording ""on demand,"" which referred to the police's ability to request information from the stores.
Another problem was with what constituted a current textbook. Judge said students selling textbooks 10 years old should not have to show identification.
""If something is out of edition, I know you're going to get 50 cents for it,"" he said.
