When it comes to the high costs of textbooks, most students think professors just don’t understand.
But some professors at the university are doing what they can to keep the rising costs of textbooks from overwhelming students by employing creative measures to keep prices low. The methods range from the mundane – posting ISBN numbers early – to the relatively radical, such as using free online books and journals in place of course texts.
The moves by professors are an attempt to fix a fundamental problem of the textbook market – the people who buy the books (students) aren’t the same as the ones who choose which books will be purchased (professors). This means professors have less motivation to keep textbook costs down.
“This is not rocket science,” history professor Sonya Michel said. “The price of books has gone up.”
Michel, who has been teaching at this university for 37 years, has seen the cost of textbooks rise over time. One report has indicated the price of textbooks has increased 40 percent over the past five years, rising to about $900 per undergraduate student per year. The result, Michel said, is more and more students are not purchasing textbooks.
At the beginning of the semester, Michel sent out an extensive e-mail to all of her students outlining four alternatives to buying books that could save students money, but she said she comes up with more every day.
“I feel obligated to try to help my students,” Michel said. “If you don’t [give them alternatives], they won’t buy the books, and they won’t do the reading. And they’re already doing so much – paying for school, going to class – to not do the reading.”
Allen Stairs, a philosophy professor who has authored a textbook himself, said he uses the library’s reserve system and available online journals – a system both professors hail as an underused resource.
“We have a great library here with plenty [of] books,” Michel said. “But I’ve literally taught seniors who have no idea where the libraries on campus are.”
Stairs said he also puts together a book for his classes for “significantly less than what [his students] would pay if they got one from a bookstore.”
He said creating a texbook is relatively easy and allows it to be produced on an on-demand basis, which he said publishers could do to lower costs.
“If textbooks were produced on-demand, the cost would be much lower for students,” Stairs said, though he acknowledged that changing things on the level of publishing companies is much more difficult than changing the approach at the university and in his own classroom.
Furthermore, Stairs also uses the same book every year, opening up the opportunity for students to sell the book to other students who enroll in the class next semester.
Stairs said students often think professors and administrators are ignorant to the growing strain books can place on students’ wallets, a sentiment, he said, that isn’t always too far off from the truth.
“Students feel that way because it’s probably true,” Stairs said. “I think it would be dandy to have a faculty forum where we could all come together and discuss ways to take student costs into greater consideration.”
Michel, who said she occasionally shares her new ideas on how to save students money on textbooks at department meetings, echoed Stairs’ enthusiasm for a faculty forum.
But professors say, regardless of how high book prices continue to climb, neither students nor professors should consider “giving up” on books but rather look to the examples of cost-conscious professors and take small steps to save students some money. A recently adopted University System of Maryland policy on textbooks asks professors to take similar steps, including using textbook rentals, electronic editions and online content to reduce the cost of textbooks.
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