The Cavalier Daily :: MINK: Make textbooks affordable

"When tallying up the college tuition bill, the tuition number tends to stand out the most and dominate what one thinks about the price of college. But while the president has lamented the rising tuition prices as a danger to the American education system, a small but significant portion of a student’s yearly budget has gone unnoticed — the price of textbooks. Almost every University student has experienced the shock of going to buy textbooks at the University bookstore and realizing the text needed for one three credit course costs upwards of $200. With prices for a single course that high, when multiplied by several courses and stretching over eight semesters of school textbooks can add a tremendous amount of money to an already substantial final bill for college. The cost of textbooks is a problem across the country, not just here at the University. According to the Government Accountability Office, the cost of textbooks has increased by almost 82 percent over the past decade — a number three times that of inflation. In addition, the College Board estimates that students spend an average of $1,200 a year on textbooks. Here on Grounds, some students have resorted to simply not buying their required texts, a practice many of them know to be harmful but seems unavoidable. This problem is especially significant for students already toeing the fiscal line, students for whom coughing up another $1,000 for textbooks is more complicated than having their parents write another check. But by taking a few simple steps, administrators and faculty at the University can make attendance easier and cheaper for all the students on Grounds.  One relatively workable step would be to increase the number of required textbooks the University’s libraries carry. Though libraries such as Clark and Alderman already carry a good number of texts, they do not have anywhere near enough supply to keep up with the demand of all University students ... Another great new resource that has become available on college campuses nationwide are open textbooks, which are textbooks created and edited by students and professors, usually available online for little to no cost. In fact, a recent study from the University of Wisconsin found that if every student at that University were assigned just one open textbook per semester, it would lead to over $6 million in savings ..."