Students look for alternatives
as textbook prices rise
In 1996, Kenneth Lambert, professor of Computer Science at Washington and Lee University, wrote a textbook that cost $42. Twelve years later, the most recent edition of the same book costs $75, nearly an 80 percent increase.
According to a 2005 study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the independent, investigative arm of Congress, textbooks prices have risen at twice the rate of inflation during the past two decades.
But the increase in textbook prices has trailed increases in other higher education costs. According to Lambert, during the same 12 years in which the price of his textbook increased by around 80 percent, tuition at W&L increased by 140 percent.
So why are textbook prices such a concern in comparison to other higher education expenses? According to a 2006 report by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), more than 40 percent of Virginia students said they had passed on buying at least one textbook because they couldn't afford it.
At an appearance Feb. 22 at the University of Texas-Pan American in Texas, presidential candidate Barack Obama criticized the way professors benefit from writing expensive textbooks required for their classes. Candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain have not addressed the issue.
Nevertheless, writing textbooks is not as lucrative as it may seem, especially with the expansion of the resale market, said Lambert, who has written 18 computer science textbooks for colleges and high schools since 1996.
"It's in a sense a vicious cycle because a publisher can only count on one year's worth of sales out of an edition," he said. "As an author, I don't see royalties after the first year."
Many bookstores and students see the book buyback business as a benefit -- and many bookstores, including the W&L bookstore, promote it. But Lambert says that to re-coup prices lost from used book sales, publishers raise prices, or worse, demand new editions more quickly.
"When I first got into [the business], it was a new edition every four or five years," Lambert said. "Now I'm seeing a year-and-a-half turnaround. It's crazy. First of all, I wouldn't be able to come up with enough new material to justify it, and second of all, I wouldn't want to hurry [a new textbook] into production."
Bill and Maureen Becker, co-directors of the W&L Bookstore, also feel that publishers are the root cause of textbook price increases.
The main problem they see is the new phenomenon of "bundling," when the publisher shrink-wraps a new book with supplemental materials such as workbooks, CDs and other instructional materials.
According to the GAO report, publishers say these materials are developed in response to instructors' demand for them, yet the Beckers believe that most professors are simply swayed by publishers acting as sales representatives.
"Bundles are appealing to professors because they cost less than the new textbook itself," Maureen Becker said. "But they don't understand that students won't get anything from a bundle at buyback, so it winds up costing [students] more."
For example, if a new book sells at $100, a student could receive up to $50 at buyback, spending only a total of $50. Yet a student who purchases a $90 bundle with the same book and a supplement cannot sell the bundle at buyback, keeping the amount the student spent at $90.
The Beckers also said higher transportation costs drive up the price of textbooks.
Lack of communication between professors and the bookstore also causes price increases. Professors who request books after classes start increase shipping costs and miss out on used book opportunities.
"Three thousand colleges and universities are competing for a limited supply of used books, and those who adopt early get the books," Maureen Becker said.
According to the SCHEV report, Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Mary Washington both encourage timely textbook adoptions by awarding a textbook scholarship to the academic department with the most on-time adoptions. The department then awards the scholarship to the student of its choice.
The SCHEV report also said that at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, some students can stretch out their textbook purchases over the semester instead of paying a large amount at one time.
According to Jonathan Kates, executive director of the University of Virginia bookstore, the store expanded textbook rental and guaranteed buyback programs and added electronic book offerings this past spring.
At W&L, the Beckers said they have taken steps to keep textbook prices steady over the past four years. They also said that the bookstore now has three times as many used books -- which sell for 25 percent less than new books -- than four years ago.
"Everybody's looking for used books," Maureen Becker said. "It's like gold."
The Beckers also plan to improve communication between the bookstore and professors by meeting this summer with the provost, deans and department heads. They hope to encourage professors to restrain from using bundles and new editions with little or no changes, as well as to send in book requests earlier.
"We don't want to tell professors what to use for their classes," Maureen Becker said. "We just want to educate them about their choices and what kind of impact they have."
Encouraging students to participate in book buybacks -- and to come early before quantities are filled and book values go down -- is also a priority for the bookstore. According to Maureen Becker, last year's fall buyback put $80,000 back in the hands of the students.
Yet many students still think the best solution is to forgo the bookstore altogether and scour the Internet for the lowest price.
But in the past, the Beckers found that many students would purchase a textbook from the bookstore, go home and order it online and return the original to the store once the online version arrived.
According to the Beckers, such practices serve only the individual and not the community. Two years ago, the Beckers implemented strict rules requiring students to have a receipt and proof that they had dropped the class in order to return books.
"If you use the store as a loan desk, books won't be here for those who actually need them," Bill Becker said. "It also increases the cost of processing."
And the bookstore does not make most of its money off textbook sales.
"Return on books is actually going down," Bill Becker said. "The store is producing less revenue than it was four years ago."
Nevertheless, some professors and students still think the bookstore is the cause of high textbook prices.
Wayne Thompson, a W&L politics professor , started writing books back in 1980, and now he and a partner own their own publishing company. He used to sell his book to students through the university's bookstore, but now he sells it to them as a publisher himself.
"What I didn't like about the bookstore is that it had the habit of ordering used copies and then charging more than the original copies," Thompson said. "And I really don't want that for my students. I can put a new book in the hands of my students for at least 25 percent cheaper than the bookstore."
As his own publisher, Thompson not only sells his book to students cheaply, but he also gives them $100 worth of free books as well.
"The student buys one or two books with no markup, and they get seven or eight for free," Thompson said. "I think we professors worry about the price of books, and I think about that when ordering books. It's unconscionable."
Other professors are finding different alternatives to textbooks to save students money.
W&L geology professor Chris Connors uses Wikipedia and United States Geological Survey entries in lieu of a textbook for his introductory course. While his main reason is to have students learn how to evaluate the quality of sources, Connors said that part of his motivation is also the price of textbooks.
Nevertheless, there are drawbacks to using Internet sources, especially Wikipedia. Sometimes, the accuracy of the information and its structure are questionable, as well as the authority on which it was written.
"So I don't know what the solution is," said Connors. "Maybe textbooks are the solution."
And despite bookstores' and professors' efforts to keep textbooks affordable, the GAO report concludes that given the current market environment, textbook prices will continue to rise.
"It's all relative to the context of the economy," said Lambert. "Everything's getting higher."
Produced by
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