New federal rules aim to help college students with textbook costs

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New federal rules aim to help college students with textbook costs
Jul. 21, 2010
By Diane Smith
Star Telegram

Kyle Vrla walked away from college life in May with a civil-engineering degree from Texas A&M. He also has a load of textbooks he hopes to sell to recoup some of the estimated $4,000 he spent on them during four years at College Station.

Vrla, who is working in Dallas, got his college textbooks every which way -- new, used, online and borrowed. Sometimes, he didn't get his money's worth -- he used one only three times and lost $150 on another because he couldn't resell it.

"When I went to resell the fifth edition of my Mechanics of Materials, the course had switched to the sixth edition the semester after me," Vrla said.

Advocates say a new set of federal provisions, aimed at driving down the cost of college textbooks, should help students this fall. On July 1, these rules took effect:

Publishers must give professors detailed information about textbook prices, revision histories and a list of alternate formats.

Publishers have to sell materials typically bundled with textbooks -- such as CDs, DVDs and workbooks -- separately so students don't have to buy them.

Colleges have to include in-course schedules with required textbooks for each class, including the book's price and International Standard Book Number, an identifying tool.

The protections, included in the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, are an attempt to lessen student debt, said U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., on Wednesday.

"The cost of education is of concern not only to students and families but to the nation," Durbin said, explaining why the government got involved in textbook prices. "Students are emerging with more and more debt."

Durbin has estimated that textbooks cost college students $800 to $1,200 a year and that prices have been rising at four times the rate of inflation.

Students welcome the new protections.

"Textbooks are ridiculously expensive," said Frank Netscher, 22, a senior physics major at the University of Texas at Austin.

Students often feel trapped by the expense, and sometimes they choose not to pay for a book to save money.

"I skimped on a physics course, and I skimped on a course called linear systems," Netscher said. "The reason I didn't buy the books was because I knew I could pass the courses."

Area colleges, including the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of North Texas and Texas Christian University, are already providing students access to textbook information in course schedules. For example, a link navigates UNT students from the course catalog and registration site to detailed text information, said Tom Rufer, UNT's assistant vice president for auxiliary services.

There, students will find required and recommended textbooks with title, author, edition, copyright year, publisher and ISBN reference, Rufer said. Students can also learn whether a textbook has not been chosen, as well as the new, used and rental prices at the UNT Bookstore, if available.

UTA Bookstore manager Bill Coulter said students going online to the university's class schedule can click on a book icon that includes information similar to what UNT is providing. The bookstore is also continuing a book rental program.

"It was hugely popular," Coulter said, adding that books selling new for $100 were being rented for a semester for about $47.

Rufer said the UNT bookstore will have more than 975 titles available for rent this fall. UNT is also focused on buying back more used textbooks to have them in supply for students.

"We are giving more options to students," Rufer said. "Students really can have an impact on lowering their costs."

Drew Bradley, 19, who will be a sophomore at UNT this fall, quickly learned to be savvy about textbook shopping. He spent about $500 on new books in his first semester. But in his second, he cut the cost to about $150 to $200 by using ISBNs to shop online. He said some books online are only $2.

"Everything counts," he said. "If you can get them used, go online, shop around."

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/07/21/2352490/new-federal-rules-aim-to-help.html#ixzz0uWEM9Zpn

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This is a great thing! Textbooks are ridiculously and sometimes ruinously expensive.

I used to buy all my books, read ALL of them in the first two weeks of class, and take them back for a full refund - I never could have afforded to pay for all my college texts otherwise!

Cycloptichorn

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@Cycloptichorn,

I agree that it is a great thing that colleges are working towards recycling and saving their students money, but I disagree that the federal government should be involved. I'd rather entrepreneurial students and colleges work out better systems than inacting federal laws that can be easily circumvented and add complexity to the system.

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@engineer,

engineer wrote:

I agree that it is a great thing that colleges are working towards recycling and saving their students money, but I disagree that the federal government should be involved. I'd rather entrepreneurial students and colleges work out better systems than inacting federal laws that can be easily circumvented and add complexity to the system.

Colleges have no incentive to do this whatsoever, so I don't know why you think they WOULD if they weren't forced to.

It's not just recycling, really, but putting the actual costs up front.

The rules, according to the article:

Quote:

Advocates say a new set of federal provisions, aimed at driving down the cost of college textbooks, should help students this fall. On July 1, these rules took effect:

Publishers must give professors detailed information about textbook prices, revision histories and a list of alternate formats.

Publishers have to sell materials typically bundled with textbooks -- such as CDs, DVDs and workbooks -- separately so students don't have to buy them.

Colleges have to include in-course schedules with required textbooks for each class, including the book's price and International Standard Book Number, an identifying tool.

Hardly onerous. All they require is that publishers and profs be up-front about the costs of the books, and therefore the costs of taking that course. I for one have signed up for courses only to find that there are $450 in textbooks required, when we got the syllabus on the first day of class. To hell with that!

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

I didn't say the rules were onerous, only that the federal government shouldn't be worrying about it because there is no effective action they can take. The colleges themselves may not have an incentive to reduce costs, but other organizations do. There is real money to be made here for groups that can squeeze money from the system. I've been on three college campuses in the last two weeks. There are prominently advertised textbook recycling efforts at all of them. Amazon has a resell program also advertised on one campus and I saw two other sites on a quick search. This is all ahead of any legislation. With the ease of modern communication, it has never been easier for students to list their books for sale or organize book co-opts. You need laws for consumer protection when the information or power balance between the vendor and the customer is highly out of balance. In this case, the power imbalance is not between the publisher and the student, it is between the college and the student. The college requires these texts, frequently changes texts, doesn't limit professors to standard texts, charges nice markups, etc. The law requires publishers to provide professors detailed information. Do you really think the professors couldn't get this information before? If they didn't bother to look for it before, what makes you think they will do anything other than throw it in the garbage now? Professors know that textbooks are major expenses for students. This law does not correct a major information imbalance between the professors and the publishers because there isn't one. Campuses have a lot of pull with the publishers if they care to use it. Saying publishers can't bundle just means that the publisher will charge more the for book alone. Once again, it's the college that is controlling the marketplace, requiring the students to buy a certain text. Once there is no competition, prices rise. Showing the students how much their texts costs doesn't help them make more informed buying decisions because it doesn't expand their choices. You still have to buy the required text - no comparison shopping is possible. It might help students browse Craig's List or Amazon before the semester starts, but that's about it. This is also not particularly new. Where I went to school, professors would give students the required text lists for their courses on request.

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@engineer,

This is fallacious on your part, for several reasons, not the least of which being the new requirements that:

Quote:

Colleges have to include in-course schedules with required textbooks for each class, including the book's price and International Standard Book Number, an identifying tool.

This gives students a way of identifying the books they need in advance of signing up for the class - no more surprise giant bills. This also provides price pressure upon professors to choose books which cost less, as they will be listed right next to other professors who are doing exactly this. Professors have nothing to do with this requirement at all - they cannot just choose to throw the info away, as you put it.

'Recycling' isn't very useful, because new versions come out constantly and the old versions are basically junk at that point. This is specifically done by the publishers to combat recycling.

Colleges don't really control the marketplace at all, as they a) don't tell professors what books they can or cannot require, and b) they don't sell the books to the students.

Quote:

Once there is no competition, prices rise. Showing the students how much their texts costs doesn't help them make more informed buying decisions because it doesn't expand their choices. You still have to buy the required text - no comparison shopping is possible.

Totally wrong. Students have a choice in several ways:

1, they could choose to take one section of a course over another. This is very common when dealing with larger courses, and each prof. typically requires a different set of texts for their section. Those who offer lower prices, offer students a better choice.

2, they could choose to take a different class. If I have two classes which satisfy a requirement, and one costs twice as much in books, I can choose to take the other one.

3, they could choose not to take the class at all, and take it later when a teacher who offers cheaper book options is teaching it; OR, they could take the course at a local college and transfer credit.

There is no downside to this legislation whatsoever, and significant upside. I work on a college campus and intimately know how the textbook purchasing process works and what its effects on students are... you'll never convince me that colleges would make these changes - changes beneficial to students - unless they are forced to do so.

The College textbook market has historically been a cash cow, for the students are essentially trapped and forced to pay the ridiculous prices they charge. Digital distribution and on-demand printing are screwing this market currently, and I for one am happy to see greater regulation in place.

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

Cycloptichorn wrote:

Quote:
Colleges have to include in-course schedules with required textbooks for each class, including the book's price and International Standard Book Number, an identifying tool.

This gives students a way of identifying the books they need in advance of signing up for the class - no more surprise giant bills. This also provides price pressure upon professors to choose books which cost less, as they will be listed right next to other professors who are doing exactly this. Professors have nothing to do with this requirement at all - they cannot just choose to throw the info away, as you put it.

This doesn't put any pressures on professors at all. Less students take their courses, they get more time off. Plus, many of these courses are required so the students may see how much they need to pay, but can't do anything about it.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

'Recycling' isn't very useful, because new versions come out constantly and the old versions are basically junk at that point. This is specifically done by the publishers to combat recycling.

But colleges could require the previous version or threaten to change publishers if a new version obsoletes the old one. Colleges do have power here.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

Colleges don't really control the marketplace at all, as they a) don't tell professors what books they can or cannot require, and b) they don't sell the books to the students.

Professors are employees of the college. That colleges willingly ceed the choice to the professors doesn't mean that they aren't responsible. My college sold me my textbooks, but I've been out a while and maybe that is no longer true. It is clear that the high profits in this market are attracting competition and that will do more to drive prices than this law will ever do.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

Quote:
Once there is no competition, prices rise. Showing the students how much their texts costs doesn't help them make more informed buying decisions because it doesn't expand their choices. You still have to buy the required text - no comparison shopping is possible.

Totally wrong. Students have a choice in several ways:

All the choices you listed are valid, but they are very limited. For most course choices, the differences will be small between sections of a course and professors have no reason to worry about it as listed above, especially if the professor wrote the book. While the early birds might get to take a cheaper section, eventually most of those sections will fill up and unless significant numbers of students can put off the course, the most expensive course will fill up plus those putting off taking the course will face the same choices next semester.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

There is no downside to this legislation whatsoever, and significant upside. I work on a college campus and intimately know how the textbook purchasing process works and what its effects on students are... you'll never convince me that colleges would make these changes - changes beneficial to students - unless they are forced to do so.

The College textbook market has historically been a cash cow, for the students are essentially trapped and forced to pay the ridiculous prices they charge. Digital distribution and on-demand printing are screwing this market currently, and I for one am happy to see greater regulation in place.

If you work on campus today and see this firsthand, I will concede you have a better view of the system. The only thing I disagree with is the significant upside. I think all the information the students will now receive was already available to them; this just makes it more available. Students are still trapped and forced to pay the ridiculous prices of text books. But I'm willing to be proven wrong. To me, proof of the effectiveness of the law would be something like seeing a course with high text prices being cancelled for lack of students and coming back with a more affordable books list. Professors and colleges actively driving down prices would also be good evidence. If you have the opportunity in the future and see some of these actions I would appreciate some feedback.

That said, I think this doesn't really address the fundamental imbalance between students and colleges. Colleges today can basically make students jump through any hoops they want even though the student is paying the bill. This bill doesn't change that.

1 Reply

@engineer,

Quote:

If you work on campus today and see this firsthand, I will concede you have a better view of the system. The only thing I disagree with is the significant upside. I think all the information the students will now receive was already available to them; this just makes it more available.

The key, I think, is that students will be able to review this information before signing up for classes - in essence, before making a buying decision. Previously you would find out (like I did) on the first day of class when you receive the syllabus from the Prof. It leaves students in a tough spot sometimes when you find out that instead of the 1-200 you were expecting in books, you end up having to buy 3-400 dollars worth.

Quote:

Students are still trapped and forced to pay the ridiculous prices of text books. But I'm willing to be proven wrong. To me, proof of the effectiveness of the law would be something like seeing a course with high text prices being cancelled for lack of students and coming back with a more affordable books list.

That is what I also would hope for.

Quote:

That said, I think this doesn't really address the fundamental imbalance between students and colleges. Colleges today can basically make students jump through any hoops they want even though the student is paying the bill. This bill doesn't change that.

Totally agreed. Part of the problem is that while colleges are essentially required to get any higher-level jobs in America, our college system hasn't adjusted to this yet; and therefore the demand at most colleges is still far outstripping the capacity. This has lead to them getting away with charging ever-increasing tuition and fees, and the students just pay up... because what else are they going to do?

Cheers
Cycloptichorn

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New federal rules aim to help college students with textbook costs

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