Ripoff 101: The Rising Cost Of College Textbooks

The rising costs of college textbooks.

In 2004 the California Student Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) along with the Oregon student public interest research group (OSPIRG), jointly released a study called “Ripoff 101: How the current practices of the textbook industry drive up the cost of college textbooks.” A survey polling the most widely assigned textbooks at 10 public universities in California and Oregon, and interviews were done with 156 faculty members and 521 students on the cost of textbooks and purchasing habits. (Fairchild 4) The study focused on the following problems: Textbooks are getting more expensive, publishers add extras to raise prices, and new editions published frequently, often with little content change.
These books are then sold used for the next semester, the price varies from the shape of the book and the cost of a new copy of the same. However, if a new edition is scheduled for a future release, the older books cannot be sold back to the bookstore, eliminating the option of buying a used book. As an alternative to buying and selling back books, many retailers are offering a rental system that allows the student to rent a book for the semester and return it after the class is completed, as long as the book is in good shape. However, this can still be quite expensive for the student, as the books for each course must be rented separately and some instructors require more than one book per class. In the early part of the 21st century the University of Wisconsin–River Falls set up a book rental program for it's students. Before each semester starts instructors are instructed to issue a list of books needed for their classes and the college will acquire the needed books, and students are charged a one time fee. This fee is calculated either on the number of credits being taken by a part-time student, or is a flat fee is a full time undergrad. If the students wish to keep the books once the course is completed, they can purchase them at the end of the semester, allowing them to acquire the book at a reduced rate. As of 2013 over 3000 college bookstores have set up this type of program, with funding from the U.S. Department of Education. These programs allow students to save significant amounts of money over the span of their college career. Even the bookstore may make profit off of the system. The instructors are encouraged to select books that may be used for multiple years, giving the bookstore time to recover the costs of the books. However a book bundled with additional material, such as a CD,