According to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the cost of college textbooks in the United States has risen at twice the rate of inflation over the past two decades and has almost tripled from 1986 to 2004.
At some public four-year institutions, students spend an average of 26 percent of tuition and fees on textbooks and supplies alone. But even at private institutions like Tufts, where the average is closer to eight percent, students appalled by high costs are seeking solutions, such as not purchasing textbooks for their classes or opting out of courses with expensive book lists.
While some teachers have taken steps to help students in their classes cut costs, others miss the necessary steps to keep the cost of books low for their classes.
Meanwhile, bookstores and publishing companies are taking heat from students and teachers alike for the high-priced books.
For many students, the cost of textbooks is a serious constraint on their resources. "There is no way I can pay for these textbooks all four years of college," freshman Shaun Engstrom said. "First semester, my parents pretty much gave me a blank check for books, but money is getting tight in this economy, and I had to pay for them myself second semester," she said.
Tufts bookstore manager Carolyn LaQuaglia explained that freshmen like Engstrom often have the steepest bookstore costs, simply by virtue of the classes they take.
"Freshmen tend to spend the most their first semester because they're taking mostly introductory classes," she said. "In general, intro, engineering and the sciences have the bigger, more expensive textbooks." Even members of other classes spend an average of $300 to $500 on books per semester, according to LaQuaglia.
Senior Mary Von Rueden has faced this problem now for years, and confirmed Engstrom's worry that the costs become unmanageable.
"The cost of books actually does influence my choice of classes," she said. "I try to avoid [classes] that I know will require a textbook, and if I do have to take one, then I avoid buying the book."
Some students, however, were appalled by the idea of spending so much money on college tuition and then avoiding valuable courses because of the comparatively negligible book costs.
Other students found the idea worthwhile but difficult to execute because of a delay in receiving reading lists from their professors, according to senior Kris Coombs, because some wait until after the registration period to disclose reading lists.
"I really hate registering for a course and then finding out that the books cost $300, but so many book lists aren't even finalized until the very beginning of the semester that it's impractical to try to base [cost predictions] off of a previous semester," Coombs said.
More popular than not registering for certain classes is Von Rueden's practice of simply not purchasing their required texts, registering blindly and subsequently bypassing book costs by attaining their required reading from sources other than the bookstore.
"Usually when a book is too expensive I just try to photocopy it or borrow it from friends, but that's a hassle," Coombs said.
Other students order books from discount Web sites like Half.com or try their luck waiting around for textbooks on reserve in the library.
Many teachers are equally outraged by the price of books and limit the expenses incurred by their classes for their students' benefits.
"It's terrible for students. I do what I can to make it as cheap as possible," said David Denby, a senior lecturer of philosophy who often orders his books from Hackett Publishing Company because of their relatively low prices. "They use cheap paper and cheap bindings ... You can usually do something around the edges to keep costs down."
Denby also goes through the required books with his students at the beginning of the course, suggesting which books should be obtained at the Tufts bookstore and which can be obtained online or in the library.
Other professors who try to keep their students' costs down are frustrated by the seemingly perpetual increase in book prices.
"[Book cost] is an important issue because the price mounts up," Professor of English Elizabeth Ammons said. "I'm ordering little paperbacks, but I know that contributes too. Sometimes my students tell me that science books and books for other kinds of courses actually cost them more, so that evidently, some texts could cost hundreds of dollars, which has staggered me."
To deal with this issue, Ammons looks for the cheapest copies of the novels she teaches, allows students to use older editions and puts a copy of her class's texts on reserve at the library.
Still, the cost of books has stopped some of her students from keeping up with class assignments.
"Sometimes a student will clearly be embarrassed and say they cannot afford a book," she said. "If I have an extra copy, I'll give that to them. One way or another, it will become clear that [a student] is not reading a book, and in that case I'll approach them."
Although many students appreciate their professors' efforts to keep budget in mind when assigning reading, some say there is much more that can be done.
"I work for the history department and I copy a lot of segments of books and put them on Blackboard," Engstrom said. "While some teachers may need an entire textbook, very few actually do use a whole one. I know that other departments also scan onto Blackboard, but I think they should do it more."
Engstrom added that photocopied reading packets required for purchase by some classes are an additional area where costs could be cut. "For example, those paper packets that teachers make us buy from Gnomon Copy could all go on Blackboard, and departments could go to greater lengths to reduce prices for students by figuring out which articles are most important and putting them up."
While many other students and teachers direct their frustration toward the Tufts bookstore, the store's management explains that rising prices actually put the bookstore at a disadvantage.
"Believe it or not, we don't like to sell new books," LaQuaglia said. "We cringe when a new edition comes out because it will make books more expensive for the students, and then we don't do as well because students will usually buy their books elsewhere."
Through the Tufts Bookstore Buyback program, students are encouraged to sell back their used textbooks for up to half of their original prices, provided that a professor has reordered them for the next semester. The books are then resold at reduced prices.
Because many professors submit their book orders past the bookstore's recommended deadline, however, it becomes impossible for the bookstore to collect enough used books in time to sell them for the coming semester.
The bookstore is launching a new initiative, inspired by a project launched at the State University of New York at Albany's bookstore, also a Barnes and Noble affiliate. To provide professors with incentive to submit textbook orders by the deadline, the bookstore grants a full textbook scholarship to one student from each academic department that submits its orders on time.
"It's something completely new that we just started this semester," LaQuaglia said. "It generated some really positive energy, and the students realized that we're not the bad guys."
