Daily Egyptian Editorial 05
Sponsored by 710 BookStore - - - http://www.seventen.com/Our Word: Stop the meeting
Stop the meeting. An Undergraduate Student Government senator spent $120 on a textbook and had trouble selling it back.
It is easy to see why such a situation would cause consternation to USG Sen. Joe Moore. After all, it seems unreasonable for a bookstore to decline to buy back a book merely because the packet containing an accompanying CD-ROM has been opened.
Fortunately for Moore, he needn't just seethe about it. He can organize a trip to Springfield to lobby for a textbook bill.
The timing is certainly interesting. After all, expensive textbooks and baleful buyback policies are nothing new. Students have been complaining about this sort of thing for many years.
A 2005 Government Accountability Office Report noted that textbook prices have increased by an average of 6 percent per year from 1986 to 2004, a rate of increase which easily outpaces inflation. Book prices today are nearly three times what they were in 1986 and can account for a substantial portion of a student's higher education costs.
Some practices have become more troubling in recent years. "Bundling," or packaging textbooks with other materials such as CD-ROMs, workbooks or periodical subscriptions and requiring them to be purchased as a unit, can be a tremendous vexation for students. Bundled textbooks should always be approached with caution, because an item's inclusion in a bundle is no guarantee of its usefulness. In addition to driving up textbook costs for students, bundling can diminish a book's resale value or wipe it out altogether.
All of this is helpful to the bottom lines of publishers and bookstores as students are manipulated into paying more at the beginning of the semester and recovering less at the end.
But the USG will help us. Once averse to travel, at least for Registered Student Organizations, the USG is borrowing a van and heading north to Springfield Thursday to encourage the Illinois General Assembly to adopt House Bill 4867, otherwise known as the Textbook Pricing and Access Act. Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, a supporter of the bill, is springing for dinner.
This bill, if it becomes law, would require publishers to disclose prices of all textbooks they offer to professors, and allow professors to request the earliest possible edition. They would also be able to request only the materials required for their course. The law would require bundled materials to also be offered individually. All of these measures would help to reduce textbook costs for students.
The USG could have done a far better job of organizing and publicizing this trip. Up to 21 SIUC students can go. Have any signed up yet? How many will be able to make arrangements to go in the next 24 hours? It seems likely most seats will remain empty.
That's a shame, because this is a bill worth supporting. We would like to see more students get involved. If nothing else, it would help quell the notion that the USG is more likely to be passionate for action when an issue directly affects one of their members.
The Daily Egyptian, the student-run newspaper of SIUC, is committed to being a trusted source of information, commentary and public discourse while helping readers understand the issues affecting their lives.
The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester. The Pulse, Carbondale Entertainment Guide, is published once a week on Thursday.Last update: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 at 9:01:48 PM
Copyright 2009 Daily Egyptian Editorial 05