Senate passes resolution to help cut textbook costs
By: Dmitry Sheynin / Staff Writer
Posted: 2/12/08
The U. S. House of Representatives acknowledged something on Thursday
that had been obvious to most University students: textbooks are
expensive.
House Resolution 4137, the College Opportunity and Affordability Act,
was passed by a margin of 7:1, and it brought hopes of cheaper
textbooks and transparency from the publishing world.
"Textbooks are extremely expensive," said New Jersey Public Interest
and Research Group Student Chapters member, Tatiana Smith, a Rutgers
College sophomore. "It's something that needs to be addressed … most
students spend between 700 and 900 dollars a year on textbooks."
The new legislation would help remedy the problem through a number of
provisions including a requirement for publishers to be up-front with
the pricing of textbooks.
"A lot of professors have no clue how much the books are going to cost
… because they don't tell them," she said. "[The bill] pretty much says
that publishers of textbooks have to put a price tag on the books.
That's one thing they haven't been doing."
Smith also criticized publishers' tendencies to include bundled items
with textbooks and not offer a cheaper alternative without the extras.
Under the new bill, which still must be passed in the Senate,
publishers would be forced to treat add-ons like CD-ROMs as supplements
- to be purchased on a voluntary basis.
In addition, HR 4137 would make it easier for students to buy and sell
used textbooks by discouraging new editions that don't add anything
substantive.
"It's a lot of glitz and glamour packaging when it's not necessary,"
Smith said. "You can learn the same information with one edition."
In 2004 and again in 2005, NJPIRG issued a report called "Ripoff 101"
that echoed many of the sentiments expressed by members of Congress
last week.
"Textbook publishers increase textbook prices faster than the rate of
inflation between editions and charge American students more for the
same books than students in other countries," according to the report.
The report also found that while many alternative publishers had
created lower-cost options for textbooks, major publishers had not, for
the most part, and when they did, the cheaper books were not properly
advertised.
The ability to find cheaper books was addressed by the House in a
stipulation calling on universities to publish International Standard
Book Numbers along with their class schedules.
Currently, the University does not do this and local bookstores have
been reluctant to provide the information on a steady basis.
Wayne Beach, the director of Rutgers University bookstores and
convenience stores, said he regarded ISBN numbers as intellectual
property and described an ambiguous policy to keep them safe from
competitors. Though he said the store did not have an issue with
students copying down ISBNs, staffers later contradicted him, saying
they were instructed to stop anyone jotting down book information.
Although the University receives 10 percent of the proceeds from every
textbook sold at official campus bookstores, University spokesman Greg
Trevor said it was important for students to be able to find good deals
on their textbooks and that ISBNs should be available for personal use.
© Copyright 2008 The Daily Targum
