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Delays raise textbook prices
Lawrence Simmons
Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: News
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To address the growing problem of high textbook costs at Mississippi colleges, the College Board created the Textbook Task Force. The task force is composed of representatives from the eight Mississippi colleges, which fall under the Board's authority. Mississippi State University Provost Peter Rabideau and assistant vice president for student affairs Bill Broyles are two of MSU's task force representatives.
In a report issued in the summer of 2007 by the Textbook Task Force, many key issues were listed as being associated with the rising price of textbooks. One of the main issues included the timing of textbook selections and purchases.
Barnes & Noble manager Bobby Hamous and Student Association President Braxton Coombs have collaborated in a way to show the importance of timely book orders.
"The bookstore's and students' goals are the same," Hamous said. "An increase in book orders from faculty has a direct relationship on the amount of money students get back. This results in immediate cash for students."
Coombs said publicizing this effort was one way to help make a difference. He sent out a letter to the MSU faculty encouraging them to begin promptly turning in book orders.
"There is nothing that can be done to force teachers to turn in their stuff, but we are just going to address the issue," Coombs said. "In turning in their book orders on time, that lowers the cost of textbook prices for us by allowing us to purchase more used books."
On March 19, the date set by the bookstore for book orders, only 17 percent of teachers had turned in their book orders, Coombs said. After the letter was sent out, more teachers began submitting their materials.
"Today, we have 45 percent of teachers who have turned in their course materials," he said. "Our goal is to increase that to 80 percent. It is one of our jobs to educate faculty on the importance of turning in their book adoptions early," he said.
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 7
Ryan
posted 4/18/08 @ 10:20 AM CST
I have a solution to the text book issue. Why doesnt the University start renting text books to students? I know of several universities (some with higher student populatiopns than State) that rent text books to their students. (Continued…)
Linda Bright
posted 4/18/08 @ 11:55 AM CST
I seriously doubt the "bookstore's and student's goals are the same. The bookstore's goal is to make money. The student's goals, most of them, is to graduate from college without mega student debt. (Continued…)
Ryan2
posted 4/18/08 @ 11:56 AM CST
Ryan what you're not considering is that the university is not going to operate a textbook rental program at a loss. In order to implement a rental program it costs lots of money. (Continued…)
Chris
posted 4/18/08 @ 12:04 PM CST
The bookstore is not the reason for higher book prices. They charge the same margin they have for 50 years.
The GAO did in fact study this issue and found book prices climbing at twice the rate of inflation. (Continued…)
David Schweitzer
posted 4/18/08 @ 3:59 PM CST
I have a fancy idea:
Why don't we stop constantly trying to get the newest edition released? It's rare you see any significant changes between any two versions, and students and/or faculty can correct errors on their own in earlier versions (of course, we sometimes see MORE errors come up in newer additions). (Continued…)
Chris3
posted 4/18/08 @ 4:22 PM CST
Shhhhh.... I used Previous editions of books in several of my classes. Some wording would be different or chapters switched around to make the book "flow better" There was hardly any change! Anyways check with the Profs, Most of mine were very honest with me and would tell me weather the newest edition is what I needed or if last semesters would work just as well. (Continued…)
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