Students finding less expensive textbooks are hard to come by
One year after a highly-anticipated textbook rental program was set to launch here, the service is still yet to be seen.
The SMC Associated Students, which represents approximately 30,000 people enrolled at SMC, previously allocated $250,000 toward the purchase of 4,000 books, most of which would’ve covered political science, philosophy and mathematics.
But the idea, which was supported by the college Board of Trustees and the Faculty Senate, never got off the ground.
With costly course materials putting the cash-strapped in a bind, a student-proposed rental program, which was set to start at Santa Monica College in the fall semester 2007, would’ve eased the burden by marking books down to 10 percent of their listed price.
The initiative has faced several challenges, including issues of academic freedom. In order for the program to be successful, it would require professors to commit to a single edition for about three years at a time, according to Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein, the president of the faculty senate and professor in philosophy and social science. More than 100 professors gave their word.
There was also concern by the college administration over a proposed requirement for all participating students to provide their credit card number in case the books came back with damages. If the credit card information was illegally obtained by a third party, the college could be liable, Tahvildaran-Jesswein said.
The new AS board does plan to pursue the rental service this year, though little has been discussed about the specifics, such as how many books should be purchased, according to President David Chun.
Chun could not comment on why the program has been stagnant, pointing out the responsibility fell on last year’s board.
“Hopefully we’ll have something running by the end of this year,” he said.
Tahvildaran-Jesswein said he hopes the students will get moving on the program.
“This is a good place for some student activism and we want to be supportive of their efforts,” he said. “But they have to define what they need.”
Students have long griped about the expensive costs of textbooks, spending on average more than $700 a year on course materials, according to a survey by the National Association of College Stores.
477,“Even now I’m struggling trying to find some books for my class,” Chun said. “What do you do? Do you buy that meal or save money to purchase books?”
The high price tag came as a surprise to freshmen Deepti Singh and Yin Pao who are both still in the process of buying books for the semester.
“I’m the oldest child so it came as a shock for my parents to have to cough up the money,” Singh said.
Singh estimates she will spend $300 on new textbooks this fall for five classes. Pao’s estimation is a bit more steep — about $400 for four classes.
Pao, who worked at an SAT preparatory school this summer, said she has spent most of her paycheck on textbooks.
“To buy one book, I have to work 11 hours,” she said, holding a used Spanish 2 textbook she just purchased for $95.
To alleviate the burden, several professors are considering collaborating with each other to use commonly adopted textbooks in which all faculty who teach a specific course will agree to use the same book. The books are purchased through a single publisher who can offer the books at a lower cost, typically less than half the price sold through conventional means.
The practice has been adopted for the Political Science 1 courses.
Rental programs have been catching on at colleges and universities across the country, with the service currently being offered at more than 2 percent of college stores registered with the national association.
The idea has also caught on with some independent sellers, including online textbook store, Chegg.com.
The company began offering its rental service — calling it the “Netflix for textbooks” — about two years ago, currently offering more than two million titles for rent to approximately 4,000 campuses across the country.
Osman Rashid, the CEO and cofounder of Chegg, said that students save on average about 70 percent by renting.
“We know that an edition is good for an average of three years and that we would be able to send the book around enough times to make it profitable for us and at the same time … college students could have books cheaper,” Rashid said.
Despite the amount of money she has so far spent on new textbooks, Singh didn’t seem bought on the idea of a rental program.
“It depends on how much cheaper it is because when you buy a book, it’s yours,” she said.
Jump hedline: Students finding cheap textbooks are hard to come by.
Suggested pullquote: “To buy one book, I have to work 11 hours.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 29, 2008. Read the original PDF.