The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, February 25, 2010 - 5A
IPAD
From Page 1A
iPad," he said.
iPad competitors like the Ama-
zon Kindle, Sony Reader and Barnes
& Noble's new Nook already have
a variety of textbooks available
for download, and publishers like
The McGraw-Hill Companies and
Houghton Mifflin directly offer
e-textbooks of their own.
Neuman said students will even-
tually read textbooks on laptops,
phones and specialized e-readers.
He added that being able to search
for text on a single device, rather
than using an index, is one of the
chief advantages of digital books
over printed texts.
"Who wants to carry around text-
books at seven pounds a piece?" he
said.
Local textbook retailers may
already be losing business to digi-
SPRING BREAK
From Page 1A
or any other places that people
would go to," Popat said.
Despite the violence in the coun-
try, Popat said travelers returning
from Mexico haven't reported
experiencing anything dangerous
and that the hesitation to visit the
country stems from word of mouth
accounts.
"You hear this, you hear that
and people just have this idea (that
Mexico is unsafe) and people just
view it that way," Popat said.
LSA sophomore Jenna Marine
said she is one of roughly 15 girls in
Kappa Alpha Theta sorority who is
not traveling to Acapulco, Mexico
for spring break this year because
her parents will not allow her to go
due to safety concerns.
"Every year usually everyone
from my sorority goes," Marine
said. "It's very Greek. All the
sororities and frats that we hang
out with go, but this year, for the
first time, not everybody's going."
But Marine said she under-
stands why her parents won't let
her go on the trip.
"Their reasoning was that it's
unsafe and that they didn't want
to pay $2,000 for me to get drunk
on an unsafe beach in Mexico,"
Marine said. "I feel like I wouldn't
let my daughter go either."
Joni Marine, Jenna's mother,
said it is the excessive drinking
tal course materials. Shaman Drum
Bookshop was forced to close last
June, and officials there pointed
mainly to online developments in
the textbook market for the store's
trouble.
Ulrich's Bookstore and Michigan
Book and Supply have created online
rental programs to compete with
online textbook service Chegg.com.
Jade Roth, vice president of books
at Barnes & Noble College Book-
stores, said the company sees digital
textbooks as just another option for
students who would rather rent than
buy printed copies.
"As college booksellers, we don't
choose the content - that's chosen
by the professor," she said. "What
we try to do is provide students with
as many choices as possible from a
format and price perspective."
Barnes & Noble has sold digital
textbooks since 2003 and has made
efforts to apply them to electronic
devices, Roth said. She added that,
despite their availability, digital text-
books might take a long time to be
adopted by the reading public.
"If I'm reading a textbook, I
want to interact with the mate-
rial, do exercises, rely on color
and graphics, take notes and have
those dump out into a study guide;
in essence I want to consume con-
tent," she said. "When I look at the
(e-)readers that are on the mar-
ket today, they don't really fill the
need at that point."
Representatives from Ulrich's and
Michigan Book and Supply declined
to comment on the issue of digital
textbooks.
With stores offering different
textbook options, students said they
have varying opinions on whether
they would actually buy a digital
textbook or whether they would use
one on an iPad.
LSA junior Sandhya Simhan said
she already uses digital materials for
some of her classes and would use
more if they were available.
"If iTunes suddenly had text-
books, that would be pretty damn
cool, atleastin myopinion," she said.
Simhan said that though digi-
tal textbooks would be convenient,
she doesn't see the iPad as the best
device for viewing text given its
touch-based interface.
"I like the idea of buttons, because
I know exactly whereI am," she said.
"It's very sci-fi to use your fingers...
but even if I am the Internet genera-
tion I'm not as comfortable with (it)."
Kinesiology sophomore Zachary
Salt said he still prefers printed ver-
sions of text over digital ones even
if the downloadable textbooks were
made readily available.
"Personally, I like to read hard
copies of things and it wouldn't be
that much use to me," he said. "But
for people who like to stay organized
and like to keep everything all in one
place, it would definitely be a use-
ful tool."
CAPS expands
both programs
and its offices
on spring break trips coupled with
the dangerous drug activities in
Mexico that worry her.
"I think it's the concept of
spring break that you're going for
one reason - and one reason only
- and that is to get drunk 24/7,"
Joni Marine said. "If you're going
to go for that reason, I really
don't like it to be in an unsafe
place."
LSA junior Hunter Rojas, whose
family owns a hotel in Cozumel,
Mexico, said despite students'
concerns the hotel hasn't seen a
decrease in tourists thus far.
"The government has been able
to do a decent enough job of keep-
ing the wars away from high tour-
ism places," Rojas said. "In these
big hotels you don't even leave
them, so it's not like you're going
to be mixing with scary locals."
But results from a recent sur-
vey conducted by STA Travel - a
travel agency with offices around
the world, including in the Michi-
gan Union - showed a major shift
in this year's most popular desti-
nations for students traveling on
spring break trips.
In the survey of 600 college
students, 60 percent said they
planned to travel during break. An
unusuallylow 10 percent of college
students said they were traveling
to Mexico, while a surprisingly
high 34 percent reported Europe
as their planned destination.
In October 2008, STA conduct-
ed a similar survey asking students
about their 2009 spring break
plans. The survey found that 78
percent of respondents planned to
travel during the break - with 65
percent reporting that they were
heading to Mexico, the Caribbean
or a domestic beach location and
15 percent saying they were going
to Europe.
At the STA in the Union, store
manager Carolyn Okon reported
an overall decline in the number of
University students traveling for
spring break this year.
Of those traveling, Okon said
most are taking shorter four- or
five-day trips to domestic loca-
tions, with Miami as the most
popular destination.
"A lot of people seem to be sav-
ing (their) money to do a bigger
trip in Europe over the summer,
or at least that's what they've com-
municated to us," Okon said.
In an STA press release, James
Bell, commercial vice president for
STA Travel, wrote that this year's
shift in the most popular locations
could be the result of students
wanting a more culturally mean-
ingful experience.
"What you're seeing is a more
globally-focused generation than
in the past, and they want to use
their time off to soak up the cul-
ture of Europe rather than the sun
of Mexico," he wrote.
STA spokesman Patrick Evans
offered another explanation for
the shift, saying that, in light of
the economy, atrip to Europe this
year is "a great value and a great
opportunity."
Evans said parents might favor
trips to Europe not only because
they are especially affordable
right now, but also because if they
are going to pay for their kids to
travel somewhere, they want the
expense to be worthwhile. He
added that parents would rath-
er picture their kids learning at
museums in Europe than partying
on a beach in Mexico.
LSA senior Domenic Terenzi
is on the University's Ginsberg
Center Alternative Spring Break
leadership team for site and devel-
opment of ASB trips. He said the
record number of applications -
more than 500 - ASB received
this year could also be a result
of students looking for valuable
experiences participating in com-
munity service work at affordable
prices.
According to the Ginsberg Cen-
ter website, ASB trips cost $125
per person.
"Financially, ASB makes a lot of
sense for a lot of people," Terenzi
said.
He added that he thinks there
is a growing interest on campus in
social justice activities and ASB is
a way for students to explore that
interest.
"The whole getting drunk at a
beach thing is getting overdone or
cliche," Terenzi said. "(Students
are) making the most of that time
in other ways."
From Page 1A
tors, including the economy and
its effects on students, increased
interest in CAPS outreach pro-
grams and a possible decrease in
stigma from students hearing pos-
itive comments from others about
their CAPS experiences.
"I think it's some form of com-
bination of all that," Hays said.
Sevig said the center is expand-
ing its services by offering more
individual counseling and other
programming to create a more
comprehensive office.
"We're in this wonderful peri-
od right now where we are get-
ting bigger in terms of increase in
quantity and also increasing ways
that really meet students' more
immediate or short-term needs,"
Sevig said. "Individual counseling
is a very important part of what
we do, but we do a lot of other
things."
Hays said CAPS recently
developed a number of drop-in
counseling classes that are open
to all students and do not require
an appointment. Some of the
workshops offered involve main-
taining healthy relationships,
improving self-esteem, medita-
tion and dealing with procrasti-
nation.
"The group offerings have
increased quite a bit this term,"
she said. "Groups are a really
wonderful way for students to
experience personal growth - not
just with one person giving them
feedback - but with a lot ofpeople
giving them feedback, especially
from their peers."
Through these programs,
Sevig said CAPS is able to reach
students that wouldn't normally
come in for individual appoint-
ments.
"We're increasing the quantity
of our individual work, but we are
also increasing in other ways," he
said. "We're getting a little smart-
er in how to get in touch with stu-
dents' needs."
Sevig said since mental sup-
port for students doesn't come
in a "one-size-fits-all" approach,
CAPS is trying to think of creative
ways to attract students.
With the help of the CAPS Stu-
dent Advisory Board, CAPS is cre-
ating three short videos that will
soon be posted on the CAPS web-
site. The video topics include how
to make an appointment at CAPS,
how to help a friend in need of
services and how to break the ice
with a professor.
And the extra programming is
coming at a time when CAPS is
seeing an increase in the number
of students using the center.
Hays said even though the wait
time for an appointment with a
CAPS counselor is usually lon-
ger in fall semesters, this winter
semester has had a longer wait
time than in the past.
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