The cost of textbooks

By Erin Chambers

Polina Khokhlova, a senior finance major, walked briskly through the sliding door of the campus bookstore last Monday. She had just returned an economics textbook after purchasing it 3 days earlier, taking it home, and catching up on the first half of the quarter's problem sets.

"We're all being forced to find ways around these insane prices. $140 for one book for one quarter when I have six others to buy too is ridiculous," she said. "Simple as that."

Khokhlova, like many students on campus and around the country, is frustrated with the rising costs of textbooks. To avoid the increased expenses, students often share books between classmates, add to credit card debt by charging their books each quarter, or simply don't buy all of the recommended reading.

Although the need to purchase expensive textbooks isn't exactly a new burden for college students, there have traditionally been avenues in place â€" such as used books and the old buy-it-from-my-frat-brother method â€" designed to lessen the financial strain and still get students the materials they need. However, by debuting new editions every other year and bundling various one-time-use software packages with textbooks, publishers have severely decreased the used book market and forced students to purchase more new textbooks than ever before.

"We're all in the same boat here, and we're very aware of the problem, but the publishers control the industry," said Deborah Kendall, manager of the Santa Clara campus book store. "And they have all kinds of tricks to undermine the used book market."

Kendall said some publishers often send representatives out to persuade professors to adopt new editions to their courses, thereby making older editions obsolete.

"Then we're trapped," said Kendall. "Because it flows like a business. It's supply and demand."

The book store can't buy books back if the professors request new editions or if the original software is missing. Even if the same book is used, many times accompanying software requires a password and registration, thereby ensuring that only one student can use it. When there is an opportunity to buy books back from students, Kendall says the campus store pays a standard industry rate of 50 percent of what they paid for the book.

"I've only been here two years and already had to adopt a new edition to my marketing text," said SuBom Rhee, an assistant professor in the Leavy School of Business. "They used to be paperback and run about $80. Now they are all hardback and it's about $110."

Expensive textbooks are also just one factor in the overall trend of increasing tuition and expenses. Tuition and fees for an on-campus student at Santa Clara topped $38,000 for the 2002-2003 academic year, as reported by the Office of Financial Aid. The office conducts a survey each year to see how much kids actually spend and then adjusts the Students Expense Report, which determines how much aid is given out for certain categories, accordingly.

"This year, we've had to set the amount of books and supplies in the Student Expense Report to $1,224," said Andy Moriarty in the Financial Aid Office. "That's over $400 per quarter just for books."

According to the National Association of College Stores, the average price of a new textbook in 2002 was $72.12, though many cost more than $100.

Students across the country are rapidly discovering that the exact same books are being sold in places like England, France and India for nearly half the price they are sold at in the United States.

According to figures from Amazon.com, a particular physics textbook will run students $93.15 if purchased on Amazon.com. The same book on the British version of that site, Amazon.co.uk, goes for $63.37 including shipping to the United States., a difference of more than $30.

Similarly, the savings on one biochemistry text, after shipping, came out to nearly $75. Khokhlova would have saved $62, after shipping, on her economics books had she purchased it overseas.

Richard Sarkis and David Kinsley, two recent graduates of Williams College, discovered the phenomenon a few yeas ago and started Bookcentral.com, a website designed to sell textbooks from abroad to students in the United States.

"It seemed so sleazy of the publishers," said Sarkis to New York Times reporter Tamar Lewin in an article published on October 21st. "We were sure that the college students would be shocked and outraged if they knew about the prices. But it's been this big secret."

Student leaders at Santa Clara are also looking for solutions. Santa Clara Associated Students joined Dogears.net, a web-based forum for students to connect with other students to buy and sell books, last year.

"I hope to see more students and club members promoting their events on the event calendar link," said Dogears Administrator Bill Blackburn. "Also, I am hoping that dogears.net will travel word of mouth amongst the underclassmen so that the site will be used more frequently."

The service is becoming more popular each quarter, with 1,150 current members..

However, it is precisely the service's target market â€" used books â€" which the publishing industry is squeezing out.

After learning about the alternative options for buying books, including the reduced prices for books purchased overseas, Khokhlova said she wondered how she was going to complete the problem sets for the second half of the quarter in her economics class.

"The Mastercard people are going to wonder what the hell is going on if I keep making $100 purchases and then returning them 2 days later," she said. "What was the name of that Web site again?"