Bursar billing option to be limited

If an IU student does not play on an IU athletic team or hold one of four financial aid distinctions, he or she won't qualify to use the bursar billing option at the IU Bookstore starting this August.\nThe modified bursar service is the result of lengthy negotiations finalized between IU and T.I.S. Bookstore in March, Mark Kuchefski, executive director of the IU Bookstore said. The locally owned bookstore felt bursar billing gave the IU Bookstore an unfair business advantage since the service was implemented in 2001. \nAs a result of T.I.S.' concerns, IU and T.I.S. reached an agreement to limit the use of bursar billing. Students can still use the bursar if they hold one or more Pell Grants, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Stafford Loans, Perkins Loans or play on an IU athletic team, according to a University statement.\nThirty percent of IU students billed books to the bursar this academic year, Kuchefski said. Around one-third of IU students qualify for the five distinctions now mandatory for bursar billing.\nKuchefski said it might be IU athletes and the specific financial aid winners who make up the 30 percent asking for bursar billing.\n"They may not be in fact the same group but there's a fair percentage of the student body that does fit those categories," Kuchefski said.\nBursar billing allows qualifying students to pay for their textbooks at a later date in the semester, perhaps aiding financially strapped students to not have to pay for their textbooks at the beginning of the semester.\nJunior Cody Vidinich does not receive financial aid, but he has always billed his textbooks to the bursar. Vidinich said he was angry when he heard that he wouldn't be able to use the bursar anymore.\n"I thought the bursar was convenient," Vidinich said. "I definitely see T.I.S. point, but the University's main goal should be the students rather than worrying about other businesses."\nSince bursar billing began, T.I.S. also wanted students to be able to bill books purchaced from its store on 3rd St., Tim Tichenor, operations manager of T.I.S. said. Despite their plea, Tichenor said IU refused to offer the service to off-campus businesses. \n"We just wanted to participate and the University just decided that was not feasible for them," Tichenor said.\nTichenor said he feels not offering the service to off-campus businesses is contradictory, as he said IU extends other services, like Campus Access, outside the University. \nAs a result, T.I.S. has lost $2 million in revenue in the last two years, Tichenor said. In an effort to level the playing field, Tichenor said T.I.S. had talks with local representatives of the Indiana General Assembly before the agreement was reached between the two parties.\nThe modification will officially occur Aug. 13, 2005, and take effect for purchases for the Fall, 2005 semester.\nAfter IU and T.I.S.' agreement, T.I.S. will cease pursuing complete removal of bursar billing in the short term, Tichenor said.