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This past spring the Academic
Senate for California Community Colleges adopted a position paper titled
“Textbook Issues: Economic Pressures and Academic Values” that asserts
that textbooks are too costly and that those costs may deter some
students from going to college. It also contends that the costs have
risen to such an extent that the issue has emerged from the halls of
academe to become a topic of “intense public debate.” What follows is
not a polemic, but rather a summary of the state Academic Senate’s
findings combined with an informal survey conducted on the Glendale
College campus at the beginning of fall semester and comments by faculty
members.
That the price of textbooks is of concern on this campus was
reinforced by Vice President Steve White at the October faculty meeting
when he suggested that book costs might be one reason for declining
enrollment and urged professors to consider lower-priced alternatives
when assigning texts for their classes.
The Senate report, which bears the names of eight representatives
of community colleges in the state, claims that “for many students, the
price of books is the largest direct cost of attending college,” and
purports to offer “avenues whereby faculty members can help control
costs while still preserving academic integrity.”
The report states that books add up to 60 percent of the typical
student’s yearly cost of attending a community college. Many students,
it says, spend more than $800 a year on books. Anjali Stanislaus,
director of the Glendale College bookstore, reports that the average
price for a text is $70.97. At that price, if a student were to enroll
in five three-unit classes, he or she would pay approximately $355 for
textbooks. Tuition, at $26 per unit, would come to $390. So for a year,
that student would pay $780 for tuition and $710 for books. Excluding
parking and other fees, books would account for roughly 48 percent of
the student’s costs.
A major
contention of the Senate report is that publishers often “revise”
textbooks primarily to limit the used textbook market. In fact, Ron
Harlan of the biology department said, “It just gets older editions off
the shelf and forces sales of new editions.”
The Senate has
some specific recommendations. Faculty should, the report says:
= know the total cost of
textbooks packages they adopt
= consider such options as
electronic sources
= refuse to adopt texts
unless publisher can guarantee that an edition will be available for a
specified time, perhaps three to four years
= without sacrificing
pedagogy, choose less expensive texts
= encourage libraries to
maintain reserve copies of texts
= indicate that a text is
required of students only if it will actually be used
= discourage publishers from
printing unnecessary new editions
(These are the key points from a longer
list of recommendations.)
The report
also recommends that local Senates develop a textbook policy in
conjunction with their bookstores and libraries.
The survey
conducted at Glendale indicates that there is some concern for textbook
costs among faculty. Of the 116 surveys returned 67 said that revisions
of textbooks often seem to be aesthetic and related to marketing over
actual utility. Twelve said that that always seemed to be the case.
Thirty-two respondents answered that textbook revisions are rarely
warranted, while 51 said that they are sometimes warranted.
The majority
of respondents said that they are usually or always aware of the costs
of textbooks they assign, and 30 out of 116 said that the costs factored
into their choice of texts. Thirty-eight said that costs sometimes
factored into their choices.
To the
question of whether students comment on or complain about the cost of
textbooks, 31 said some do, 28 said that several do, 44 said than many
do, six said than none do, and one respondent said that all students
complain.
For this
article, Anjali Stanislaus supplied the average prices of texts for the
fall semester by subject. The lowest priced texts were for physical
education ($20), dance ($30), welding ($35), Korean ($35) and
photography ($35). The highest were for biology ($120), chemistry
($120), Italian ($120), physical science ($121), French ($150) and
Spanish ($160).
Among the
comments about books at the lower range, Barb Erfurt of the physical
education department said that “many” students complain about the costs
of textbooks. Terry Coblentz, also of physical education, said that
marketing seemed to be the main reason for revisions. Dance department
chair Lynn McMurrey said that students don’t complain, but that
revisions are “rarely” warranted. On the high end, Lourdes Girardi of
the Spanish department said that many students complain and that
revisions are “sometimes” warranted but “frequently” primarily for
aesthetic of marketing purposes. Michael Cornish, biology, said that
cost factors into his choice of textbooks, but that only “some” students
complain, and that revisions are “sometimes” warranted but are
“frequently” for aesthetic or marketing purposes. Rob Mauk, also in the
biology department, said that revisions are “rarely” warranted. He also
said that students don’t complain because “I comment on it before they
get the chance.”
Instructional
Librarian Deborah Moore and Economics Professor Mark Maier had
different takes on the issue. Moore said that the realm of information
competency texts is exceptional because of the rapidly changing nature
of library databases and the Internet. “Our textbooks become outdated
quite quickly,” she said, and there is a fairly small pool of books from
which to choose. At $50, the text her department now uses for
Introduction to Information Competency is more than the previous text
but it contains useful exercises and more information. “I do think about
textbook price as much as possible,” she added.
Maier said
that one of the biggest factors driving up the price of books is the
concentration of ownership in the publishing industry. With Thompson and
McGraw-Hill publishing most of the texts, Maier says there is little
competition to drive prices down. But Maier also says that the fact that
textbooks are relatively small runs is also a factor in pricing.
Book
publishing is all a matter of economies of scale. A book like Dr. Phil’s
Self Matters
with a print run in the millions can be priced at $25, while a textbook
that sells a few thousand will have
to be priced higher to cover set-up and printing costs.
Maier says
that professors should only assign books that they actually use in their
classes. Some teachers, he says “don’t really use the books.” Besides
making “sure we use the books,” Maier says that teachers should
emphasize the value of books. Books are an integral part of what
students take away from their college experience, he says. Books are
important. Students should be encouraged to mark in the texts, highlight
and underline. “It is all part of the learning experience, but it isn’t
something many of them learn,” he says.
It is no
secret that many students try to keep their textbooks in pristine
condition so they can sell them when the class is over. But they may be
doing this at the expense of their education. A student can’t really
learn from a book without underlining or highlighting, making notes,
cross referencing. And, in fact, they can do this and still sell the
book back when the class ends. Anjali Stanislaus says that the bookstore
buys back books at half the original price, regardless of underlining or
highlighting. If a book cost $50 students can sell it back for $25,
marked up or not. The only exception, she says, is texts or workbooks
that have questions to be answered. She can’t take back books with
answers filled in.
It is true
that textbooks amount to nearly 50 percent of the cost of students’
education at this college. But if one looks at the bigger picture, how
does it compare to other expenditures in their lives such as movies,
music, and other forms of entertainment? And if students transfer, which
is one of the stated goals of this college, what will be the ratio of
book costs to tuition at the institutions where they complete their
education? If they pay $700 a year for books and $7,000 for tuition,
then books become 10 percent of the costs. If they pay $35,000 for
tuition (which is not unheard of) then books are reduced to two percent
of the costs.
As for the
state Senate’s assertion that the cost of textbooks has become a topic
of “intense public debate,” academicians should be wary of outsiders
attempting to mandate educational policies. The recent publicity
surrounding the so-called “academic bill of rights,” a deceptive assault
on academic freedom, is a case in point. If forces outside, or even
inside, colleges and universities could limit costs of textbooks, might
they also down the road be able to regulate content of textbooks?
In my Freshman
Composition class I use
The Norton Reader
(W.W. Norton is one of the few remaining independent publishers of
academic books). There is a long and short edition of this book of
essays. I’ve decided to assign the shorter edition in the spring. It has
fewer essays, but we never get through all of the ones in the longer
edition. The longer edition is $49.15 in the bookstore (this is the
highest-priced textbook I use) and the shorter is about $10 less. Maybe
this will help in a small way.
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