Volume 24 · Number 2 · Winter 2007
Parents
Textbook Blues
Students gathered on campus usually chat, laugh and smile a lot—except, that is, when they’re in the college bookstore, buying textbooks.
They’re spending a huge amount of money—often your money—and they want to do it right. But it’s not easy.
Take, for example, language textbooks. This fall at the UC Davis Bookstore, the textbook for Spanish 1-3 came bundled with a workbook and nice-looking dictionary. Instructors require the textbook and workbook, which will be used for three quarters. But students studying the shelf had puzzled faces. What about that dictionary?
Many students selected the $146.15 shrink-wrapped, three-item package and stuffed it, with a sigh, beneath their other purchases. Others bought the used textbook for $81.50 and a marked-up copy of the workbook for $38.70, skipping the dictionary. Who was making the wiser choice?
Across the room, students in Math 16 decided between the $103 new and $77 used textbook, while students in Poli Sci 1 were relieved to discover that the Challenge of Democracy (eighth edition) sold for a comparatively “inexpensive” $83 new, $62 used.
A used copy of Challenge of Democracy lay on a table in front of another bookstore for $1.99, but it was the sixth edition, which students know can spell trouble due to changed content and page numbers.
One of the challenges of democracy nowadays is, in fact, textbook prices, which, according to the Government Accountability Office, have been rising at twice the rate of inflation.
It’s all about the market.
A growing expense
Book publishers, who are responsible for showing a profit to their stockholders, must sell books for more than it costs to make them. When it comes to textbooks, which require extensive editing and fact-checking, those costs can be high. If a textbook also contains graphics, photos and problem sets, the price climbs to the stratosphere.
Publishers can’t recover their costs by selling to a huge market because, as Jason Lorgan, book department manager of the UC Davis Bookstore, explains, “There may be only 5,000 students nationwide who need a textbook on advanced microbiology.” And once the book is published, students seek used editions, which make money for bookstores and online sellers, but not for the publisher.
Publishers respond by issuing new editions more frequently and bundling them with extras like study sheets and CD-ROMs that they claim students need but which seem designed to drive up prices.
Blaming the bookstore
Few students understand the market forces that make their books cost so much, so their frustration and distrust land on the doorstep of the local college bookstore. It doesn’t help that college bookstores need to mark up book prices in order to pay rent (as UC Davis does for its warehouse and its branch at the Medical Center), for utilities and for the staff it takes to provide copies of every book for every class. The UC Davis markup is 22 percent, the lowest in the UC system.
College bookstores try to ease student pain by buying books back from them, but they can only offer a good price (50 percent of retail) for books that will be used again the next quarter. “The first book I ever sold back I bought for $35, and I got $3,” says Cipriano Santos, a fourth-year biological sciences major from Modesto.
Such complaints are common. Working in a bookstore, according to Lorgan, requires a thick skin—and a lot of energy. He and his staff make daily contact with national book distributors to obtain used copies of textbooks. They are proud that UC Davis holds the distinction of offering more used books than any other college on the quarter system.
Lorgan explains that the ideal situation for students is circular. The student spends $75 for a used textbook that retails new for $100 and sells it back to the bookstore for $50. In this scenario, the student’s real price is $25 for the quarter.
This works only if the book is widely and repeatedly used, and no student takes only classes where this happens. In addition, many students keep their textbooks for reference, or as Whitney Shuman, a sophomore from Visalia, puts it, “I’m an English major. It’s kind of hard for me to part with books.”
The role of professors
Faculty members want to save students money, but they often find that all the available texts are expensive. Some respond by making special arrangements with publishers.
Susan Keen, a lecturer in evolution and ecology, teaches Biological Sciences 1B, a course that requires only two-thirds of the chapters in Integrated Principles of Zoology. She orders a custom-made edition that costs $50 less than the full text.
Bagher Modjtahedi, long-time faculty member in economics, admits that his sensitivity to book prices rose when his children started college. “When my own book went out, I tried so hard to keep the cost down. For example, I tried to have only two colors.” But some observers say that today’s students won’t read books that look dull.
Most professors who write books want to create a good product and are sensitive to the accusation of making money from their students. They point out that once a book is “used” nothing returns to the author. Keen, who co-authors a textbook, also notes that “You’ve got graphics people. You’ve got copy editors. You’ve got photographs you need to purchase the rights for. The idea is out there that somebody is making millions of dollars. That’s rarely true. You’ve got the contributions of a huge number of people who need to be paid.”
Can parents do anything?
Admire the creativity of your children.
Students find many ways to save money. The fastest-growing method is to purchase used books online from individual sellers who beat bookstore prices. This requires alertness on the part of the student who must find out early which books will be needed for each course. Betsy Van Blarigan, a fourth-year student in biomedical engineering from Truckee, has contacted professors by e-mail to find out the ISBN numbers of required books and then looked for them “all over the place.”
She starts online, but she also borrows from friends and lends to friends. She locates books through the Biomedical Engineering Club. She checks used bookstores in Davis.
She explains that it is more difficult to order online for winter and spring quarters, when there is less time for shipping. A decision to ship quickly (and expensively) can obliterate your savings.
Some students shop at the ASUCD book sale, where students set their own prices for used books.
Virtually every upperclassman interviewed for this article advises students to listen to what the professor says on the first day of class before deciding whether to buy books that are “recommended” but not required. If the professor plans to test on lectures only, some students don’t buy any texts, choosing instead to read them in the library where they’re available on two-hour reserve.
One money-saving method that hasn’t caught on is digital textbooks. The UC Davis Bookstore was among 10 nationwide that tested digital delivery last year. Of 600 local students who could have bought a digital book, only 14 did.
Final advice
As in so many things, it is up to parents to take the broad view. If your child is unaware of money-saving practices, you can nudge in that direction, but saving money may require more time for research than your student has available.
Terry Murphy, professor of plant biology says, “If I were a parent I’d like to know that the huge amount of money is going for something valuable. It is. There is more in the textbook than I can possibly lecture on.”
Santos, the fourth-year biological sciences major, sticks to the practical side. “Parents think: Tuition is paid, rent is paid, we’re good. No. My textbooks cost about $900 a year. If I spend only $250, that’s a good quarter. You should always budget for books.”
Recent graduate Nathan Shapiro from Alamo offers another perspective on high prices that might please parents. He says, “I spend so much money on books, I better use them.”