Textbook market tightens up

Allison Barnett, a UNC-Chapel Hill biology major, didn’t want to comb local bookstores or surf international Web sites for the slew of textbooks required for her first semester of college.

Instead, the freshman from St. Louis pre-ordered the load from UNC’s Student Stores for $425.

“This is all new for us,” said her mother, Carol Barnett. “This is just the easiest way to do it.”

And even though they didn’t shop around, Carol Barnett said the $425 price tag is likely comparable to other booksellers. Textbooks are generally overpriced, she said, and those prices need to come down.

The Barnetts came head-to-head with the same escalating textbook prices with which college students across the country are grappling.

The average college student doles out about $900 each year for textbooks, according to a 2004 survey conducted by the California Public Interest Research Group.

CALPIRG found that factors raising prices include textbooks bundled with additional workbooks and CD-ROMs, publishers offering incentives to professors to choose a certain book and a constant flow of new editions.

Earlier this year, student leaders in Virginia pushed through the Textbook Market Fairness Act, which bars publishers from offering professors kickbacks for assigning a specific textbook. The act also mandates that professors make book lists available before the start of classes.

Zach Wynne, president of the UNC Association of Student Governments, said he hopes the UNC system will find a way to ensure N.C. professors turn in book lists prior to ordering deadlines.

“If they get them in on time, it gives the bookstore an idea of how much they need to order, and (they) buy more books back.”

Inflation nation

Soaring tuition and high-priced textbooks nationwide have coupled to create higher education costs that border on unmanageable.

A new study from the U.S. Government Accountability Office shows that during the last two decades, textbook prices increased at twice the rate of inflation, following closely behind the pace of tuition.

John Jones, director of UNC-CH Student Stores, said that while direct competition stems from used book stores in the area, online sites such as Half.com and Amazon.com have recently nabbed more business.

And CALPIRG’s report found that an average textbook in the United States costs about 20 percent more than one in another country.

Purchasing Power

In North Carolina, student outcry has drawn the attention of the UNC-system Board of Governors, which created a subcommittee to study the cost of textbooks. The committee met for the first time in July.

“We’d like to provide some relief to students if at all possible,” said committee chairman Peter Hans.

Hans said one avenue to explore is leveraging the purchasing power of the entire UNC system to bring down prices. “There’s a difference between what a textbook may cost at UNC-Chapel Hill compared to Elizabeth City State (University).”

With the skyrocketing price of textbooks, some schools have held strong to century-old rental programs. About 20 colleges and universities run textbook rental services with annual fees ranging from $130 to $240, according to CALPIRG.

The UNC system has three such schools: Appalachian State, Elizabeth City State and Western Carolina universities.

At ASU, a $76 per semester fee covers one textbook per course, and students must purchase any additional course materials.

Wynne, an ASU graduate student, said an informal survey found that all but 4 percent of ASU students approved of the rental program.

But Wynne said he knows not everyone is on board.

Professors are locked into a specific textbook for three years, and departments must agree on the same book for every course section.

Fayetteville State’s faculty senate has done away with rentals, claiming that purchasing textbooks is in students’ best interest, said Jeffrey Womble, director of public relations for Fayetteville State.

“They just felt that students needed to start their own academic libraries.”

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.