In April 2006, President Mark Hamilton met with ASUAF and told the student government he was troubled by rising textbook prices. He said that he couldn't direct faculty to buy cheaper books because it would appear as an infringement of their academic freedom. Instead, he encouraged the student government to pressure faculty to buy cheaper books.
ASUAF passed a resolution a few weeks later on textbooks based on the talk. It didn't pressure faculty, but instead targeted the library, asking it to put books on reserve. Those recommendations haven't been adopted, and textbook prices have continued to climb. As the Sun Star reported two weeks ago, several books for popular semester-long science courses now can top $200. The College Board reports that in 2005-06, the average student could expect to spend $801-904 for books, depending on the university. In the UAF fall operational review report, administrators said the average cost of textbooks is $90-115 per course.
Some steps are being taken to address these problems. Last week, we reported that a committee under the provost's office may standardize the clickers often found bundled with textbooks. And some individual professors are now actively seeking cheap books.
More should be done, but only one group at UAF truly has any power over the situation -- the faculty. Administrators such as Hamilton say they can't get involved, while students and their representatives have no real control over what books get assigned. Since the faculty has caused the problem, they needs to fix it.
The Faculty Senate should take up textbook prices as an issue, and should set down rules for professors to follow with regards to required textbooks. Instructors should be free to assign whatever optional books they want, but when it comes to required readings, the senate should examine capping the price students pay for course textbooks. Paperbacks should be adopted when available. Bundles should be discouraged. And faculty should be handing out photocopies or putting the books on reserve when a majority of the book will not be read for the class.
Departments should also be penalized for ordering books late. According to the fall operational review, the UAF Bookstore charges more for books if they are adopted late. In the fall, late adoptions made up about 40 percent of the bookstore's stock, the report says. Not only does that mean students are paying more for their books, but they're also less able to sell them back to the bookstore, since it doesn't know to buy them back. Departments should be required to foot the excess cost of these late orders, not students.
And as ASUAF recommended, all required textbooks should be placed on reserve at the library. This would give students an option: they could either pay for the book or read it for free.
We know faculty want student success. But affordability is just as important. It's now time for faculty to take a close look at how they're affecting student wallets.
