Textbook committee recommends cost saving plans

A Faculty Senate committee has come up with several ways for students to dodge pricey textbooks and will present its recommendations during the senate's meeting next Tuesday.

The senate's Textbook Cost Committee is recommending that Morris Library expand the number of textbooks on reserve and create a student-to-student textbook exchange program with student activity fees.

During the Illinois Board of Higher Education's Tuesday meeting, the board discussed the growing costs of textbooks, but dismissed the idea, saying it would be a costly blanket policy that could create second-rate educations for Illinois students.

The rising cost of textbooks is a campus, state and national problem. According to Follett Bookstores, average textbook costs exceed $400 per student each semester and the prices are increasing at double the rate of inflation.

The SIUC group also made several other suggestions with hopes to create a better understanding among the faculty and students about how and why certain textbooks were chosen for courses. However, the committee did not specify how all of the plans should be implemented on campus.

The Faculty Senate formed the committee last semester. It was made up of students and professors in response to the questions of start-up and maintenance costs, which many universities claim are too expensive.

During Thursday's meeting in Springfield, SIUC was one of 10 public universities that believed the price of starting a rental textbook program would be too costly to establish and maintain. In a report to the board, the University said start up costs would come to more than $11 million and upkeep would run close to $4 million a year.

Some universities with smaller student populations estimated costs in the range of $1.5 million to $4 million. But universities comparable in size and larger than SIUC - like the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois State University and the University of Illinois Chicago - all had start up costs and maintenance estimates within the range of $11 million to $15 million.

Tequia Hicks, president of the Undergraduate Student Government, served on the committee. Hicks said expanding the number of textbooks at the library would be the fastest and most efficient way to temporarily solve rising textbook prices.

"Some classes were pushing people away because they couldn't afford the books," Hicks said. "With an expanded reserve, the students would see the most direct action."

The board was interested in the prospect of finding alternatives for students after reviewing the success of textbook rental programs at SIU-Edwardsville. SIUE has had a rental system in place since 1964.

King Lambird, assistant director of the Morris University Center for textbook services at SIUE, said the 10,600 students at the university pay a textbook tax every semester as a part of their fees. The tax equals out to $6.80 for every course hour. Students who take an average course load of 15 hours end up paying $104 for their books per semester. Lambird said the savings could run some students up to $400 and science and engineering students $800. Lambird, who has been monitoring the rising price of textbooks, said every year wholesale textbook prices rise.

Three years ago, he said, textbook prices rose 8 percent and by 2007 the rise will be 12 percent. Lambird said if something is not done now, students might start shelling out $800 to $1,000.

"Whether or not a textbook rental program is the best fit is a question many colleges are trying to answer, but the students love it," King said. "There is a general move on college campuses to try and get textbook prices under control."

SIUE spends about $5 million annually for its program and keeps 50,000 books in stock, which amounts to a $2 million expenditure. The university requires that professors change their textbooks every three years, a problem cited by some universities as leaving students without the latest information.

Kevin Dettmar, an English professor and member of the committee, said professors often order textbooks without knowing the costs.

This, he said, is no fault of theirs. Dettmar said textbook catalogs often do not carry the prices of the books, so professors are essentially ordering in the dark.

"It's out of sight, out of mind," Dettmar said.

Dettmar said he has talked with students about how to pay for their textbooks and has even on several occasions given his book to students.

Rick Grabowski, an economics professor and committee member, said the committee took a two-prong approach to the problem of rising textbook prices. The first is that students need to take more responsibility for locating other venues to purchase books.

Grabowski said the Internet has opened up a world of textbook savings that students could capitalize on but are not.

Grabowski said the second answer to the problem is that professors should start to recognize that not knowing textbook prices might not be a problem for them, but is a hazard for their students.

Chancellor Walter Wendler said students would still have to pay more money if a rental policy was instituted. Wendler agrees with the committee's recommendations and believes the University should explore the issue more.

"What we want to do is make available to the students the best intellectual resources at the lowest possible cost," Wendler said.