COMMENTARY: Textbook price gouging harms students
As a University student, I have personally seen how frustrating it is to be forced to purchase a textbook or program that could otherwise be found online for free. These programs that we are sometimes made to use are often incredibly costly.
For many courses, there is no point in making students use the most recent edition of a book when a lot of information from past editions is still relevant. I would like to reiterate a point in the article that students should be able to choose where and how they purchase their course materials.
According to the Education Data Initiative (EDI), the average price of a textbook in 2023 was $105.37. This equates to approximately $530 a semester and tacks on an extra $1,060 per year for college students. This means that students simply trying to receive an education are slammed with additional fees, many of which could not be anticipated prior to the start of a semester.
The EDI estimates that 25 percent of college students take on additional shifts at work to afford textbooks, and 11 percent have even skipped a meal to pay for textbooks and other course materials.
It is simply unacceptable that our nation’s students must work extra or skip meals to afford textbooks for their classes. Students deserve an education without having to break the bank on materials.
While students can get creative and buy used books, rent or share with friends, publishing companies are also getting creative with ways to stop this and force students to pay for textbooks.
These tactics include automatic billing and access codes. Access codes force students to pay to have access to their course materials, usually including the newest edition of textbooks. Students are paying for tuition and then also paying to study and do their homework. I believe it's simply unacceptable to continue this practice, because it takes advantage of college students.
Thankfully, the Department of Education (DOE) has proposed a new rule to stop these exploitative measures in their tracks. The proposal would allow students to opt-in to billing, instead of students being automatically billed and having to jump through hoops to waive the billing fees.
Standardizing automatic billing as an opt-in practice rather than an opt-out practice, will allow professors to more easily choose open-source course materials, and allow students more autonomy while choosing their textbook options.
We need to support systems to help professors make the switch away from expensive traditional books toward open textbooks, not ones that take away professor and student choice, and the DOE's proposed cash management rules do just that.
Robin Luong is a College of Arts and Sciences junior.
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