Book fines charged to bursar bill

Months from graduation, the Office of the Bursar can hold senior Jeremy John's diploma. He has an outstanding late fee for a movie he checked out -- five years ago. \n"I checked out a movie on Gandhi for a friend, and he says he returned it. Apparently he didn't because the library is charging me something like $100," John said. "I keep trying to talk to them, but they aren't going to take it off. They think because it is going on my bursar account that it isn't real to me, but I pay my own bursar bill."\nRandall Lent, head of circulation, shelving and security services at the Herman B Wells library, said this situation isn't uncommon. \n"I personally talk with students daily who have been billed for failing to return materials.\nAfter a student accumulates $5 worth of library fines, the fines are charged to the bursar. If a student fails to pay the fines on the bursar bill, that student can be denied access to certain services, such as transcripts, grades, the ability to register and receiving his or her diploma.\nEric Bartheld, assistant development director of public relations for the library, said the policies are not meant to be punitive but are in place to benefit all library users. He said the library circulates 1.5 million books in a year and a very small percentage of those never come back. \n"That's our bottom line -- we just want the books back," Bartheld said. \nBut students with fines exceeding the cost of the lost material have trouble seeing policies in that manner.\n"The movie probably cost like $20. That extra $80 is pure usury. That's 400 percent interest," John said. \nLent said to acquire such fees from the library, a student would have to be persistently neglectful of policies. He said his practice is to individually evaluate each situation and listen to the user before deciding on fines.\n"Generally, I give everyone a 'get-out-of-jail-free' card," Lent said. "Folks who are chronically disorganized or have contempt for the circulation policies soon show their true colors."\nThe library policies don't apply just to students. University Information Technology Services employee Christopher Lance checked out a book and returned it a week late. \n"They took it straight out of my paycheck," Lance said. "It definitely made me want to just check out books from the Monroe Library because they're much more lenient."\nJohn also prefers the Monroe County Public Library. \n"From that same period of time in my life when I was irresponsible, I had around a $90 fine at Monroe. I talked to them, said that I was sorry and that I wanted to be a part of the library system. They knocked the fee down to $20 and gave me my card back. That's what we call in Christianity 'grace,'" John said.\nLent argues that his job requires he figure out when grace is appropriate. \n"My job is to know when it is appropriate to 'bend' the rules," he said. "In doing so, I must remember I have a duty to serve the user who has a problem while equally serving the user who wasn't able to access the materials they needed"