A new study bemoans high textbook prices

Many students and parents - especially those from low- and moderate-income families - have felt the pain of forking over hundreds of dollars each semester for textbooks that are often underused and difficult to sell back.

The Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance found that textbook prices are rising to unaffordable levels and in a report it released last Friday entitled "Turn the Page: Making College Textbooks More Affordable," the committee offered solutions to this problem.

The report identified the fundamental problem of the textbook market as the fact that it is supply-driven, not demand-driven: Students are forced to buy whatever textbooks their professors choose and cannot shop around for the cheapest ones available.

Some states are taking short-term steps to alleviate the problem - such as creating textbook rental programs, strengthening the market for used textbooks and setting guidelines for professors to use when selecting required course materials - but the ACSFA insists that a long-term solution is necessary as well.

The group proposes the creation of a national digital marketplace, which ACSFA vice chairman Claude Pressnell defined as a "marketplace containing the full range of teaching and learning materials . a one-stop-shopping-market place where a professor . could find a full range of textbooks, lessons, lectures and lesson supplements." Such a system is already being tested at California State University.

The Make Textbooks Affordable Campaign, a coalition of student associations, lauded the report.

Still, Saffron Zomer, a representative for the campaign, said the group disagreed with the study's conclusion that a used book market would drive up prices for textbooks.

She said the campaign wholeheartedly supported the idea of a national digital marketplace, but some publishing companies have reservations.

"I'm a little daunted by the size and the scope of what's bitten off here," said John Sargent, CEO of Holtzbrinck Publishers at a Tuesday hearing on textbook prices put on by ACSFA. He said that investment in new technologies has caused his company's profit margins to drop by nearly 25 percent.

Panelists at the hearing also clashed on the issue of used textbooks.

Sargent said there was "nothing efficient" about the used textbook market, but William Simpson, president of the National Association of College Stores, insisted that it was vital to lowering book costs.

Rhea Lewis, spokeswoman for Penn Business Services, pointed out that Penn is one of many schools working to lower the cost of textbooks for students. She cited the Penn Bookstore's textbook buyback program and attempts to convince professors to order their textbooks early and commit to reusing older versions of them - which makes it easier for students to buy their books used.

Still, Rhea said she "wouldn't say [students] have no control" over their textbook prices and encouraged students to work with faculty and student government.

Rising College junior Wilson Tong, the Undergraduate Assembly's vice chairman of external affairs, noted that the UA has been working with Penn Business Services to get the bookstore to publish the ISBN numbers of textbooks, which would allow students to search for the books online.

While the bookstore will currently not publish the ISBN numbers, Tong noted that it is required to disclose that information for students who call to find out.

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