Textbook Rant

The purpose of this post is to voice my frustrations with the way universities do business. Daniel started school this week which means he started new classes and had to buy new textbooks. His books cost more than our couch! And they aren't nearly as comfortable. I just don't understand why textbook companies, university professors and university bookstores find it acceptable to get more money from their students. When I was in school, my chemistry book was the most expensive thing I owned.

Textbook companies, here's my beef with you: you release new versions of your books calling them updated and revised editions, but YOU DON'T CHANGE, UPDATE OR REVISE ANYTHING! Maybe you renumber your chapters, fix some typos, or change the pictures around, but the majority of your book remains untouched. Because you do this every year, students have a hard time selling their older versions back to the bookstore or online. Your frequent new editions are expensive for you to print and students (many of whom are already deep in debt with student loans) have to make up the difference. Here's my suggestion: Don't print another edition until you have enough new information to warrant the astronomical cost of printing it. That will make your books more affordable to those who need to buy them.

University professors, you went to college right? Don't you remember how awful it was when you had professors who made you buy these terribly expensive books, and like 3 of them for a class? Have some compassion! If you write your own textbook, make them more student friendly! My sister had a professor who wrote his own textbook which included a workbook section in the back with perforated pages. Students had to do these worksheets and turn them in. Photocopies were not acceptable, and once you tore a page out the book became ineligible to be sold back to the bookstore. My suggestion: college is expensive enough as it is, keep that in mind when you're choosing the required texts for your classes. Also, avoid assigning homework from the textbooks for at least the first 2 class periods. Give your students a chance to find the best deal on your books.

University bookstores. I blame you most of all. Your return policies are absurd. Again, at my sister's school, their bookstore has a fairly new policy: if you buy a book at the bookstore, then find it cheaper online, you are not able to return the book to the bookstore. First of all, I think that's taking advantage of their students' honesty and sense of ethics since the bookstore expects you to admit you found the book cheaper online. Second of all, that idea is beyond stupid! Here in Utah, university students petitioned the state legislature to eliminate sales tax on textbooks. The request was granted, but then the university bookstores raised the prices of the books so they could profit from the difference. At the end of each semester, buy back more textbooks and pay more money for them! That expensive textbook I mentioned earlier, when I sold it back, I got 5% of the money I paid for it. The next semester, that same book was selling for just $15 less than what I bought it for new. My suggestion to university bookstores: if you don't change your policies, quit selling textbooks.