Sticker shock at campus bookstore
UNC system is working on textbook rentals, buyback programs to help students foot costly book prices
For college students and parents who wandered through the busy UNC Student Stores in Chapel Hill over the weekend, the sign atop a 4-foot tall mound of shrink-wrapped organic chemistry books was a little scary: $201.05. Nearby, a human anatomy and physiology book was selling for $252.40.
Rising tuition isn’t the only thing taking a bite out of parents’ wallets. The cost of textbooks nearly tripled from 1986 to 2004 in the United States, according to the most recent data studied by the federal Government Accountability Office.
But the tab for textbooks could be headed downward for students in the UNC system.
In March, the UNC Board of Governors passed rules designed to reduce the cost of textbooks. Most notably, by January 2008, each campus must have either a book rental program or a system to guarantee that books for large introductory courses would be bought back at a set price. And average textbook costs would be taken into account when campus leaders request tuition increases.
The rental fee is $87 at ASU, $107 at WCU and $150 at ECSU. Renting is easy on students, but faculty members argue that the system limits their choices of books for each course. In 2004-05, the Faculty Senate at Appalachian State recommended abolishing the rentals. In the end, ASU decided to keep the system. Now it’s so popular it’s a recruiting tool for the university.
Appalachian State’s rental program began in 1938. Other campuses determined it would be too costly to start a rental system at today’s prices, because it would require an enormous up-front investment. NCSU estimated it would cost $8.5 million for books, plus nearly $600,000 in operating expenses.
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