Wily students save money on costly college textbooks

Oct 12, 2008 (New Haven Register)  -- Working two jobs while she attends Southern Connecticut State University doesn't provide Lauren Kowtko with enough money to cover the cost of her textbooks.

Kowtko, a sophomore from Southbury, has resorted to cashing bonds intended to pay college tuition to pay for books. This means she has to take out more student loans to pay tuition.

Chatting over lunch in SCSU's student center, Kowtko and her two friends agreed that textbook prices at the campus bookstore were far too high. But all three continue to purchase their books there.

Kara Pelletier, a sophomore from Middlebury who said she spent about $950 on books this semester, said buying from the school bookstore is just easier. The books are arranged by class, so they're easy to find, and there's no confusion over which edition the professor ordered, she said.

But Pelletier believes the school bookstore makes too much of a profit. With a virtual monopoly, the owners jack up prices as high as they can, she said.

Pelletier said she's found the same, new books online for much cheaper than the bookstore charges.

Many college students fed up with the rising cost of textbooks are seeking out low-tech alternatives like sharing or borrowing textbooks. The Internet provides even more options -- some legal and others illegal -- for students looking to save money.

"The bookstore is totally overpriced," said Kelly O'Connell, a senior studying journalism at Quinnipiac University.

According to Elio DiStaola, director of public and campus relations at Chicago-based Follett Higher Education Group, which runs bookstores at 700 college campuses across the country, including Quinnipiac and the University of New Haven, textbooks are priced "scientifically."

Follett uses the retail price recommended by the publisher when available and, when not, marks up books by a margin agreed upon in a contract with the university. DiStaola said the margin for new books is not to exceed 25 percent. Used books are sold at a 25 percent discount from new books' prices.

According to the National Association of College Stores' Web site, nationally in 2008, the median gross margin as a percent of sales for new books was 23.2 percent and for used books was 36 percent. The gross margin is defined as net sales minus the cost of goods.

In addition to the ubiquitous frustration among college students over high textbook prices, many were disappointed by the low return they received when trading in their used books to the bookstore at the end of the semester. And because textbook publishers release new editions every few years, students' books quickly become obsolete, and they're unable to sell them back. According to freshman Michael Zucker, his calculus course at Yale University required students to buy a school-specific book, which he'll never be able to sell on the Internet.

Students also complained that teachers would ask them to buy books that are hardly, or never, used in class.

The SCSU bookstore Web site states the bookstore will buy back students' used books at up to 50 percent of their purchase price, if the book is being used in a course the following term. But according to SCSU executive president Jim Blake, the school's contract with Barnes and Noble states that the return price should be "not less than 50 percent" of the purchase price. Blake said he planned to look into the discrepancy.

Eric Nelson, assistant manager of the Yale book store, said students will receive half the purchase price when returning a book that will be used the next term.

Some students said they try to save money by borrowing books from the school library or sharing a textbook with a friend. Some schools, like SCSU, offer book lending programs -- though none of the students interviewed had tried them. In addition, the Internet now offers a variety of cost-saving alternatives to buying their books from the school bookstore.

Vinnie Cappello, a senior at SCSU, estimated he saves between $50 and $100 a semester buying his books on amazon. com instead of at the school bookstore.

Darek Gil, also a senior at SCSU, buys the majority of his books at half.com, which prices books based on their availability. Sometimes they're priced so low, Gil can actually make money off them. For instance, he once bought a book at half.com for $75. The school bookstore charged $195 for the same book, and at the end of the semester, he was able to sell it back to the bookstore for about $100.

Gil said he thinks most of his friends buy their books at the campus book store because they don't realize how easy it is to buy online.

Andrea Celetti, a senior at Quinnipiac University, said it's possible to find online the exact book a teacher has ordered by using the ISBN number.

"Sometimes it doesn't work out because I have to wait a week into school to receive a book (I ordered online) but it was literally half the price that I would have spent at the bookstore," said Celetti, who once spent $900 on books in a semester. "Of course that's what every student wants, cheaper books."

There are also Web sites known as textbook "torrents," where students upload textbook material for other students to use for free. None of the students interviewed knew of these sites, and several said they'd feel uncomfortable using them.

Paulina Arnold, a freshman at Yale, said though the cost of books can be overwhelming, online sharing of material "messes with copyright in a way I don't like."

Daniel Goldman, a graduate student in the Yale business school, worried that such sites would reduce incentives for people to go into academia and write interesting books, and for publishers to publish the books.

"It's out there, obviously," said Larry Gal, bookstore manager at SCSU, of online competition. But he hasn't observed any significant loss of business in recent years, and estimated that the percent of students buying books from the campus bookstore is "in the high 90s."

"We've seen an influx of online competition affecting our business for years," said DiStaola. "But ultimately, students after one or two tries online usually come back to the bookstore."

The "distinct advantage" to shopping at a campus bookstore is that the bookstore works with professors, DiStaola said. Any last minute changes to course materials are taken care of by the bookstore, so students can be sure they're buying the right books. And if students do have a problem, it's easy to go back to the campus bookstore and talk to a person, rather than deal with a Web site, he said.

DiStaola also noted that a portion of a college bookstore's proceeds go back to the university to invest in things like programs, buildings and computer labs.

Some students, faculty and concerned citizens are taking a stand to reduce the price of textbooks, which they feel are unreasonable.

A few years ago, the Connecticut Public Interest Research Group lobbied to get a state law passed that requires textbook publishers to disclose the cost of a textbook in any conversation with university faculty members. Making professors aware of the cost of books gives them the opportunity to seek out lower-priced alternatives, said Jeffrey Czerwiec, campus organizer for the University of Connecticut-Storrs ConnPIRG chapter.

This year, ConnPIRG lobbied for a national education bill mandating the same type of disclosure. Also in the bill was a measure requiring textbook publishers release an "unbundled" version of any textbook published. Previously, textbook publishers would publish books bundled with lots of add-ons, like CD-ROMs and workbooks, that jacked up the price of the book, and not offer an "unbundled" alternative. This meant students had to pay extra for additional materials they never used in class, Czerwiec said.

These laws have helped somewhat in making textbooks more affordable for students, but "the fact remains that a few (textbook publishing) companies still dominate the market," Czerwiec said. "We have to go around the market and using open textbooks is the best way we know to get around the problem of the market."

Open textbooks are open source textbooks available to students online at low or no cost. Only a small number exist at this point.

To encourage professors to write open textbooks, ConnPIRG is working to build up demand for them. Over 1,500 faculty members nationally have signed a statement of support for open textbooks, promising that if an open textbook of equal or greater quality to a traditional textbook exists for a course, they will choose the open textbook. As open textbooks grow in use, Czerwiec hopes traditional textbook publishers will be forced to lower prices.

Czerwiec spoke of open textbooks as typically written by one professor. But Marc Zimmer, a chemistry professor at Connecticut College who signed the statement of support, described a vision of open textbooks as a collaborative effort between professors across the nation. He thought professors would be willing to contribute a chapter to an open textbook for no compensation, but someone would need to be paid to coordinate the effort and compile the book.