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A new law under consideration in the U.S. Senate which would save students money could also mean fewer book bundles on shelves in the Co-op.

New Law May Save You Bundles

House Passes Textbook Cost Act, Senate To Consider

By: Ryan Levinsohn

Posted: 2/15/08

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation last week aimed at making textbooks more affordable.

House Resolution 4137, the College Opportunity and Affordability Act, passed in the House 354-58 with 17 present or not voting. It now goes on to the Senate for vote before reaching the White House for final approval.

The act, which deals with the financial component of higher education, addresses what many UConn students have been struggling with during their college career: exorbitant textbook prices.

The issue of lowering textbook prices is so important that UConnPIRG, a non-profit public advocacy group, has made it one of the group's four major campaigns.

"On average, a UConn student will pay $450 a semester on textbooks," said Kevin Wilhelm, is a 4th-semester economics major and legislative intern for campus climate UConnPIRG.

The legislation would put new pressures on colleges, universities and textbook publishers that would result in lower prices for students.

The most prominent component requires that a publisher who sells textbooks with bundled materials such as CD-ROMs, offer the textbook and supplemental material as separate items.

"The two big things in the legislation are defining a bundle and continuing off that and saying that the professors have to know that what they are getting is a bundle," Wilhelm said. "The research we've done, we have seen as much as a $30 or $40 difference per textbook with bundling or without, and on average a $10 or $20 drop."

According to research done by UConnPIRG, only 18 percent of 450 students surveyed found bundled materials to be useful.

Other requirements of textbook publishers would be that they provide faculty members with information including the price at which the publisher would make the college textbook available, the copyright dates of all previous editions, the substantial content revisions from previous editions, and whether the college textbook or supplemental material is available in any other format.

Tom Stanton, communications director for McGraw-Hill Education, a textbook publisher, said the act enforces what McGraw-Hill already practices.

"One of the objectives of the act is to increase transparency in the higher education textbook market - a goal we share and support as well," Stanton said. "The prices of our products are available to all prospective buyers. In fact, anyone wishing to compare the prices of new and used textbooks from all publishers need only type the ISBN number [the barcode on the book] or title of any book into a web search engine."

Robert Day, an assistant professor of operations and information management, supports the legislation but does not look at price when selecting materials for his courses.

"I don't think price is a heavy determinant in my selection, it's really based on what's the best book for the course," Day said. "The cost of textbooks, although a significant cost, are low compared to the price of tuition. I think it's in the student's best interest to suck it up and buy the textbook and invest in themselves and their education because it is such a small percentage compared to their tuition."

When it comes to bundling, Day says that he never uses all of the supplemental materials but that it's a valuable asset to have.

"Even if I don't use it for the course the students are welcome to use the supplemental material," Day said. "I do find there are more supplemental material then you can ever use so I do accept books with way too much supplemental material but I use a fair amount of it."

Wilhelm however believes that the new requirements would be welcomed by most professors.

"Obviously to an extent they have to pick the book that they think is best for the class but at the end of the day when you look at a little CD that they could cut to help their students save money the professor would pick that option," Wilhelm said.

The legislation would also require that colleges and universities provide the textbook required for each course with ISBN number, author, title, publisher, and copyright date along with the course schedule.

The UConn Co-Op bookstore has already offered this service in the fall semester but because of technical difficulties could not continue it for this semester.

"The Co-op is going to be providing that type of information," Co-op president William Simpson said. "We did that last fall and because of technical problems couldn't do it this spring but plan to have it remedied by next fall so we will be providing that information regardless of the legislation."

If the legislation passes through the Senate and is approved by the president, students could see the benefits by next semester, according to Wilhelm.

"We've had bills introduced to the House and Senate before and seeing the way it made it through the house the way it did, I think it's a definite possibility it will pass," Wilhelm said. "There is a chance some of the things could be cut but the important part is the bundling. I think it has a pretty good chance of passing the Senate."

Contact Ryan Levinsohn at Ryan.Levinsohn@UConn.edu.