Marketing sophomore Aaron Ruby, much like most college students across the country, hates buying textbooks.
The most expensive book he’s ever bought was $140, but he knows they can go for much higher. He said he spends at least $250 annually on books, but walking into any local college bookstore will show books starting at that price. The College Board budgets $1,200 to $1,399 annually for books and supplies.
It’s not fair, Ruby said.
“I don’t want to pay that much for a book,” Ruby said. “No one does.”
According to national statistics from the United States Government Accountability Office, college textbook prices are rising faster than the price of other consumer goods. This is not news to students, and has not been for a long time.
President of ASMSU Lorenzo Santavicca ran his campaign on the stance that “college affordability is something that we need to address for all students,” and he cited that more and more incoming freshmen at MSU are first-generation college students. This is a problem, he said, because the cost of living is on the rise.
“This presents a sentiment of anxiety, and ultimately challenges for a family of a student that is unsure of what this experience may bring for them,” Santavicca said. “The effects of a college tuition bill can cause headaches and tensions without the proper support that a student may need.”
This is further highlighted, Ruby said, when professors don’t use the textbooks they say are required.
“Professors will say we need this book for the class, but then they don’t utilize it,” Ruby said. “Last year I bought all my textbooks and didn’t open a single one.”
The undergraduate student government, ASMSU, has put forward various services geared toward making college cheaper for students—they are the organization that puts newspapers on campus for free, give out bluebooks for free, provide short-term interest free loans, rent out iClickers for free and this year, rolled out another program for the rental of free graphing calculators.
“ASMSU certainly can continue the efforts to open lines of communication with administrators on the budgeting process and tuition hikes at MSU,” Santavicca said. “It’s a challenge that we face as a collective when our administration deems it necessary to raise tuition year after year, but gives little insight as to how faculty and administration receive higher pay grades.”
According to an article published by Vox.com, textbook prices are soaring for a multitude of reasons: professors keep quality in mind before price whenever textbooks are involved because they usually are not buying them, textbooks cost a lot to make and students are finding ways around buying them, which drives prices up.
Ruby said he prefers to buy textbooks online, because it’s often a cheaper alternative.
“I usually go online, just because it’s cheaper,” Ruby said. “But sometimes I go to SBS (Student Book Store) or Collegeville, because that’s where a professor will set up a book to be.”
According to The New York Times, many colleges are making the switch from old-fashioned textbooks to Open Source textbooks, which could alleviate many of the factors that students stress so much about in book-buying by hundreds of dollars per class. Santavicca said he and ASMSU are looking into things like this, but ideas are still in the forming stages.
“We’re also trying to study the effects of a student not purchasing a book due to price,” Santavicca said. “Does this mean a lower grade in the class? A hypothesis is that students ultimately sense the detriment toward their grade and success in the class without access, or easier access, to ‘required’ materials like textbooks.”
Ultimately, Santavicca said ASMSU is trying to fight for students at the state level, to try and ensure that the state of Michigan will put necessary funding into the higher education budget.
Ruby had one piece of advice for incoming freshmen.
“Wait a few weeks (to buy your books),” Ruby said. “And try and rent as much as possible.”
