2008 Woodie Awards
Higher learning has a high price
Books: Rise in text costs is examined
By: Laura Villalpando & Wendy Heffey
Issue date: 3/4/04 Section: News
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As publishers drive up the cost of textbooks, more students are wondering, "Why am I paying so much for these books and where are the profits going?"
Inflated textbook prices are often caused by new editions, which is a problem because many of them come with a CD-ROM.
These CD-ROM discs cause the prices of these books to be around $100, assistant director of the EC Bookstore, Andrew Nasatir said.
The discs also cause returning the books to be more of a hassle, since each book is wrapped in plastic to hold all of these extra items; if the plastic seal is opened, the book's price depreciates. Therefore, the student will not obtain the original value of the book if it is returned without its original plastic wrapping.
Another factor in the ever-increasing price of textbooks is the constant change and revision of editions used for certain classes.
The bookstore has no control of what books will be used each semester for classes offered at EC.
"We order what the instructors choose in any given semester, and that is a relationship based on the instructors interacting with the publisher and the publishers telling them what's coming up and what's new, and we have no part in that," Nasatir said.
Some textbooks, especially math textbooks, are used for many semesters and "the longer a professor can use a book, the cheaper it will be for the students," Nasatir said.
The publishers retain approximately 65 percent of the fees paid for college textbooks, the U.S. Department of Labor Consumer Price Indexes reports.
A recent L.A. Times article reported on a California student activist group accusing college textbook publishers of inflating prices, which resulted in an agreement from a leading textbook publisher to cut wholesale prices on about 25 titles by at least 25 percent.
Students are doing whatever they can to find cheaper books because "book prices are pretty high," Patrick Woods, EC student, said.
"Last semester, books were really pricey, so I tried to get them used," Brittany Fraser, EC student, said.
Inflated textbook prices are often caused by new editions, which is a problem because many of them come with a CD-ROM.
These CD-ROM discs cause the prices of these books to be around $100, assistant director of the EC Bookstore, Andrew Nasatir said.
The discs also cause returning the books to be more of a hassle, since each book is wrapped in plastic to hold all of these extra items; if the plastic seal is opened, the book's price depreciates. Therefore, the student will not obtain the original value of the book if it is returned without its original plastic wrapping.
Another factor in the ever-increasing price of textbooks is the constant change and revision of editions used for certain classes.
The bookstore has no control of what books will be used each semester for classes offered at EC.
"We order what the instructors choose in any given semester, and that is a relationship based on the instructors interacting with the publisher and the publishers telling them what's coming up and what's new, and we have no part in that," Nasatir said.
Some textbooks, especially math textbooks, are used for many semesters and "the longer a professor can use a book, the cheaper it will be for the students," Nasatir said.
The publishers retain approximately 65 percent of the fees paid for college textbooks, the U.S. Department of Labor Consumer Price Indexes reports.
A recent L.A. Times article reported on a California student activist group accusing college textbook publishers of inflating prices, which resulted in an agreement from a leading textbook publisher to cut wholesale prices on about 25 titles by at least 25 percent.
Students are doing whatever they can to find cheaper books because "book prices are pretty high," Patrick Woods, EC student, said.
"Last semester, books were really pricey, so I tried to get them used," Brittany Fraser, EC student, said.