By: Danielle Hoo
The increasingly
steep price of textbooks has university students digging deep into
their wallets, but states across the U.S. are passing legislation in
hopes of cutting costs.
Connecticut was one of six states that has already signed legislation
requiring publishers to inform faculty of the price and revisions of
their textbooks, according to a ConnPIRG news release.
California is the latest state to pass the textbook price disclosure
bill, also know as the Textbook Affordability Act (TAA). Washington,
Oregon, Minnesota and Oklahoma have also passed similar legislation
within the last year.
In research conducted by California PIRG, results found that 94 percent
of faculty surveyed said that they would choose the less expensive of
two equally good books, while only 38 percent of faculty said they were
always told the price of a book when they asked a publisher sales
representative, according to the press release.
ConnPIRG was very involved in the lobby days before Connecticut signed
the TAA two years ago, with their "Make Textbooks Affordable" campaign.
During the lobby days of the bill, ConnPIRG sent letters to editors of
local newspapers, conducted surveys, ran petitions and visited the
state house in Hartford to testify in an extensive effort to pass the
textbook legislation.
While the TAA is a step closer to lower textbook costs for students, it
does not include anything about the bundling of textbooks, which can
often force students to purchase additional, unnecessary material such
as CDs and workbooks.
A poll conducted by ConnPIRG that surveyed 400 students found that
while 95 percent of students purchase bundled books, only 10 percent
use all of the components included in the package.
"The campaign originally wanted the bill to require textbook companies
to release textbook prices to professors and also for books to be
unbundled," said Elizabeth Hopkinson, a 5th-semester journalism major
and ConnPIRG treasurer. "But the bill was stripped down and just
required the textbook companies to release the pricing information and
did not require for the books be unbundled."
Although the textbook legislation has already been passed, ConnPIRG is
still working to ensure that the manufacturers are keeping up with
their part of the deal.
"We're still trying to work with the Co-op and professors to make sure
that the textbook companies are sticking to the legislation and not
making it necessary to have certain things bundled," said 7th-semester
classical and ancient Mediterranean studies major and ConnPIRG officer,
Jamie Walsh.
ConnPIRG is also trying to establish a board of professors to relay
information about how textbook companies are operating and if they are
acting in accordance with legislation. Overall, professors are
responsive to students' questions on textbooks and are sympathetic to
students' price concerns, according to Walsh.
Currently, the Make Textbooks Affordable campaign is continuing to push
the two components of bill that did not pass, according to Hopkinson.
