Bill aims to reduce textbook costs

By Amber Wade

Published Feb. 8, 2008

By working with the Missouri General Assembly and University Bookstore, two student organizations are trying to reduce the cost of textbooks.

Phyllis Williams, the chairwoman of the Missouri Students Association Academic Affairs Committee, said that as textbook prices continue to increase, it becomes very difficult for students to afford college.

“Our main goal is to make college as affordable as possible,” Williams said. “Textbook prices increase exponentially every year, and students can never predict how much textbooks are going to cost because it depends on the class and the teacher.”

With MSA’s help, the Associated Students of the University of Missouri wrote the Textbook Transparency Act, which would make textbooks less expensive throughout the state.

ASUM Legislative Director Craig Stevenson said there are three major parts to the bill.

“First, the bill is a transparency law which requires the textbook company to provide the professor with the retail price of textbooks,” Stevenson said.

He said this part of the bill will help professors make decisions on what books to require based on their prices, which will hopefully lead professors to choose cheaper texts.

Stevenson also said the bill includes an unbundling clause that requires publishing companies to sell the same material found in a bundle as individual pieces.

“The unbundling clause will immediately save students money, because when the publisher bundles textbooks, they increase the price 10 to 50 percent,” he said. “If students could buy them individually, it would be cheaper.”

Stevenson said the bill would also allow students to use remaining financial aid to purchase textbooks.

While ASUM focuses its efforts on the Textbook Transparency Act, Williams said MSA will concentrate on making agreements with the bookstore.

“We hope to create a guaranteed buyback program that will inform students at the time of purchase which books the bookstore will buy back at the end of the semester,” Williams said. “Hopefully this will be a large percentage of books, but we understand that every book purchased at the bookstore may not qualify for such a program.”

MSA Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays said the bookstore would agree to this if professors could have their lists of textbooks prepared on time.

“If professors can have their list of class textbooks in by a deadline that the bookstore has set, then the bookstore will guarantee a certain buyback rate,” Mays said. “MSA is trying to help the faculty and the bookstore understand each other’s needs.”

Michelle Froese, spokeswoman for Student and Auxiliary Services, said the bookstore has been working to launch a number of strategies to reduce the cost of course materials.

“In the last year, the bookstore has really been trying to get information about this program to the faculty and students about how on-time textbook orders, used books and buyback programs can save students money,” Froese said. “We can’t do this without faculty and campus support. For example, if we could get a commitment from faculty to use the same textbook successively for three years, we would love to do the guaranteed buyback program.”

Williams said the Academic Affairs Committee hopes to help students become more educated on their textbook purchases.

“Students don’t have much choice on the books they buy for classes, but we want them to have more information about how much money they will get back before they even purchase their textbooks,” Williams said.

Mays said that MSA is also discussing a possible lease program for textbooks.

“On the Rolla campus, they are trying out a rental program for certain courses,” Mays said. “Because it’s only a trial program, we don’t yet know if or how it would work here.”

Williams said the committee has been talking with the bookstore about advertising and communication methods that will inform students about their options for buying textbooks, such as mass e-mails and flyers.

Although this is a long process, Williams said that the bookstore continues to take small steps in the right direction.