Textbook prices are higher than ever, and there is no relief in sight for students.
College textbook prices have increased at twice the rate of inflation in the last two decades, increasing at an average of six percent per year, and nearly tripling from 1986 to 2004, according to a study conducted last year by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
"That's absolutely ridiculous," said Starr Simms, a senior psychology major. "Students spend way too much money every semester on books that don't even contribute to their educational objectives.
"Spending $90 on a geography book just to fulfill a useless requirement is bogus."
The study cited that the rising cost of adding supplements, such as CDs, to textbooks is partially responsible for rising prices.
"I've never been in a class where we actually use those CDs," Simms said. "They are a waste of money."
Some teachers, however, like history professor Jim Blythe, are sensitive to the financial straits of most students, and consider this when selecting textbooks for classes.
"Textbooks are much too expensive," he said. "I try to keep costs down by using sources that I can post on my Web site or on the UM drive as much as possible."
The study also found that publishers are revising textbooks more often. While publishers agree that new additions are produced more frequently than they were 10 years ago, they said in the study that revisions are necessary to keep materials current for faculty and to recover their investments.
Publishers cited a recent poll of 1,029 college professors, conducted by the Association of American Publishers, in which 80 percent of those polled think it is important for textbooks to be as updated as much as possible, and 62 percent said they were satisfied with the frequency of new editions released, or thought they should be released even more frequently.
But Blythe said new editions are released far too often.
"In most cases, this is a pure money-making scheme," he said. "Knowledge and historical processes change in my field, but certainly not rapidly enough to require a new world history or U.S. history text every two or three years."
Joe Rosenblatt, a junior marketing major, has similar reservations concerning the process of issuing new editions.
"Its ridiculous," he said. "How many times can you revise a history book?
"Its not like events in the past have changed."
But publishers noted in the study that changing teaching methods also prompt revisions, such as updated standards issued by certain disciplines.
"I think there is a simple solution," said Chris Key, a sophomore criminal justice major. "Burn the bookstores and start looting."
But high prices are not the bookstore's fault, according to Dominic Raby, textbook manager for The University Bookstore.
"The publisher sets the price, and they go up every year," Raby said. "We promote buyback because we'd rather have used books so we don't have to go to the publisher."
Key said he was just kidding about the burning and the looting, and that he will be a gentleman when he buys his books along with the rest of U of M's students.
"I'll do what I always do and either go early to get the best selection of used books or go online to see if I can find them cheaper," he said.
