Students lead rally in support of reduced textbook costs
Student voices may soon be the cause of decreased textbook costs after a rally held Thursday at the state capitol.
The Associated Students of Colorado, a group of students working to reduce the high price of textbooks, brought the idea for new legislation aimed at decreasing costs straight to state lawmakers with a rally at the capitol. Students also attended the state Senate hearing on the proposed bill.
ASC Chairman Blake Gibson, a junior biomedical sciences and Spanish major from CSU, not only helped start the statewide student association, but also pushed the College Textbook Affordability Act from its infancy.
“It is a huge affordability and accessibility problem,” Gibson said. “With rising tuition, fees and housing, textbooks are an ever-rising pressure point on the already broke student.”
According to a 2005 study from the Government Accountability Office, course materials amount to 26 percent of total tuition at public four-year institutions and 72 percent of tuition at two-year institutions.
Gibson explained that many professors are not aware of or shown the price of books when ordering from publishing representatives.
Gibson said that depending on the book, new editions are created relatively often that have minimal changes or additions to the content. The price of the new edition goes up, while any value of previous editions instantly diminishes.
Gibson said professors often purchase a text bundled with other supplemental educational material such as CDs or other manuals. The bundling technique raises the price of the text substantially. More often than not, the professors do not even use the supplemental materials in their curriculum. The bundled texts are often non-returnable, which causes unnecessary cost for students.
The new legislation would require publishers to provide the cost of textbooks, the history of revisions to the textbooks (edition to edition), and to offer the option of purchasing “un-bundled” textbooks.
Supporters of the bill said they hope successful integration will help make education more affordable and accessible without burdening the state or the taxpayers.
Students from CU, CSU, UNC, UCD and many other universities across the state came loaded with enthusiasm and passion to fight the high prices of college text books.
Josh Childs, the UCSU representative from the legislative council at CU, spoke in front of the Senate Committee on Education. His said his motives for attending the rally and committee stem from discussions he has had while in graduate classes at CU’s School of Education.
“We talk all the time about making kids in high school pursue college,” Childs said. “Students who are low-income or first generation come to CU and enter the class without the textbook. There is a stigma put on them that they are lazy or don’t care about learning, when really they can’t afford the book.”
Shannon Lambert, a sophomore majoring in psychology, is one of those students. She came to the rally with friends from Trinidad State Junior College. The students said they made the trip on their own dime because the issue affects them so directly.
“We come from a really poor community, and let’s face it, college kids are poor,” Lambert said. “They seem to just continually change the textbooks and there is no reason for it. Then you sell it back and they only give you, like, $7 for it.”
The most notable presence at the rally was student representatives from CSU. They made the trip in vans, many of them dressed like the legislators they came to petition. Trevor Lenz, a freshman majoring in mechanical engineering at CSU, said his dad is on the verge of having to sell his house in order to afford to keep him in school.
“[We do] whatever we can do to keep me in school and keep others in school,” Lenz said. “To battle the rising textbook prices, that’s why I’m here.”
His friend Ben Weiner is a freshman majoring in business and computer sciences at CSU. Weiner said he understood Lenz’s plight.
“It seems wrong that [the textbook industry] should be trying so hard to hide information from us,” Weiner said. “Textbooks could be so much cheaper than they are. But they aren’t going to lower the prices without some encompassing effort.”
Sen. Ron Tupa (D-Boulder) is the primary sponsor on the bill, helped by Rep. John Kefalas (D- Fort Collins). Both politicians addressed the students during the rally, who met them with cheers of approval.
Tupa explained how the bill came about through grassroots democracy and the students themselves. He applauded the supporters for their diligence, and related his personal experience at the Auraria Campus bookstore. After Gibson and the ASC came to him with the bill, he decided to peruse the shelves to see where textbook prices have gone since he was in college in the 1980s.
“$400 for a textbook?” Tupa said. “So I asked myself, has the price of ink and paper really gone up that much?”
Sen. Tupa’s joke sent laughs through committee room. He went on to explain the bill and the positive repercussions it could create.
“This bill is neutral to the universities, it is a win for students, a win for parents, and it actually makes good business sense,” said Tupa. “It injects competition into the textbook market.”
He said the current textbook market is not a fair or free one, and he hopes the bill will stimulate competition to drive down prices.
Tupa also said the act will allow professors to know the prices of textbooks before they order them. Currently, publishers are not required to report information like pricing to the universities, so they often fail to do so.
At the hearing after the rally, students, faculty, book store representatives, a publisher and writer all testified on the bill. The bill was vehemently supported by students, bookstore representatives and faculty.
The publisher and writer said they were neutral on the bill, and gave a perspective from the other side of the issue
Bruce Hildebrand, of Washington, D.C., spoke on behalf of the Association of American Publishers. In his testimony, he countered claims that textbooks are in a captive market. He explained that in the AAP, there are over 4,500 publishers and 262,000 different titles from which professors can choose. He also said the price of the book can be easily found in less than a second with a simple Internet search.
However, Hildebrand said his points were not meant to be in opposition to the bill. Sen. Tupa explained that the bill had been a collaborative effort between the needs of students, faculties, books stores, publishers and legislators.
The Senate Committee on Education voted to pass the bill along back to the floor of the Senate. This is the bill’s second stop on the way to becoming legislation.
Though the anticipated date for the bill to take effect if passed is July 1, 2009, Sen. Tupa said it is a possibility that the bill could go into effect as soon as Jan. 1, 2009.
The committee said they were impressed by the ASC’s efforts to make an idea into a reality.
Rep. Kefalas told the rally he received over 1,000 letters from students urging him to pass the legislation. The father of a college student himself, Kefalas said he empathized with the students’ plea.
“Filling your brains with knowledge shouldn’t require you, the students, to empty your wallets,” Kefalas said. “We as legislators have listened, and look forward to working with you.”
Visit State Bill Colorado to view the text of the bill.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Monica Stone at monica.stone@colorado.edu.
