Show I f Bookin it Why textbooks cost so much i i J. J Jerre Staff Writer VER The course of a college students student's career O OVER he or she may spend approximately 1600 on books while on the road towards a bachelors bachelor's degree Books represent 25 of the cost of a students student's education according to estimates in College College College Col Col- lege Cost Book published by the College Board Why do college books cost so much According to Steve Ferre director of the Bookstore textbook publishers are the ones who set the price of books The liThe publishers have decided that they need to maintain a certain margin to satisfy their stockholders A lot of it depends on how popular the book is If you have a seller best-seller it will probably ly be a more expensive book It is whatever a market will bear f Fy M Books 25 the 5 c represent of J cost ost o of f a students student's education ri according to estimates in the r i 1 1 Ii i College Cost Book I The college bookstore maintains a consistently profitable operation Ferre declined to say just how much those profits are but he explained where the profits go saying A big part of the profits are dedicated to paying off the bond on the College Center when we remodeled retiring those bonds Some of the profits are dedicated to go into retained earnings However U of U law professor John Flynn suggests sug sug- suggests that the investment of such profits into a college facility may represent an invisible tuition increase Despite its sound finan financial al condition Ferre insists insists insists in in- the bookstores bookstore's profits do not come from textbooks and that the college bookstore receives receives only 20 of the price of each book According to the costs of does not cover Ferre that profit margin freight or selling trie books The costs of selling the loses 80 on such that the store books he said are every 10 textbook s On liOn the retail level in inthe the bookstore business Bookstore B 00 k store theres there's no money to be B glues Blues I ues made in textbooks Since college bookstores have few When Jl 1000 1000 is the J. retail price of a if an any competitors students textbook would appear to be able to to publisher exert little control over the to bookstore price they pay for books B Bookstore expenses s r rIts covered b by Its a legalized monopoly salaries Ferre Fer e admitted in a lecture 80 freight he gave to a Comm 30 rent class 20 janitorial Why couldn't a private 30 shoplifting 80 loss on on book company open up a competing com corn figures gures from Steve Ferre college book store t Bookstore across the street from the t college They could Ferre said But see how long they are going to be able to stay open just selling books Sam Weller found that out up at the University of Utah Lila Weller agreed saying that the non defunct Sam Wellers Weller's university branch went out of business because unlike college bookstores we weren't subsidized by the state The on-campus on location that college bookstores enjoy also works to the advantage of the college and to the disadvantage of any private com com- With an on-campus on location Ferre said students could just come in and up pick-up pens and pencils and maybe a notebook that helps subsidize subsidize sub sub- the textbooks Ferre noted that candy was the stores store's most profitable item Used books are a way for students to save money We buy back used books at 50 of what they would sell for brand new Ferre explained So if they had a price increase from the time that the book is purchased out of the store and the end of the quarter then we pay 50 0 of whatever that new price is Then we mark it up and sell at 75 of whatever it is going for brand new At the buy back at the end of the quarter Ferre noted theres a lot of books that have been dropped for the next school year So instead of the bookstore buying them back at 50 0 they only pay students 25 or 30 of the brand new price as long as the book is still the current edition If the t r- r rf f f book is scheduled to be revised by a new edition however the student is stuck with the book Ferre noted that all math books were dropped atthe at atthe at atthe the end of spring quarter so students only received receive l 25 or 30 of the original price instead of f 50 when they tried to sell them back at the end of the quarter Many of the biology books will be dropped after summer quarter Ferre said Publishers feel the bite of the used book market and have it effectively employing revision cycles of every two to three years according according according accord accord- ing to Ferre You look at what they've done on algebra books Algebra is algebra The theory behind behind behind be be- hind algebra isn't changing You dont don't need to update update update up up- date it But they've gone to a year three revision cycle on that If publishers used a five to seven year revision cycle the book would last another three to five years longer y Ferre envisions a dramatic change in the fut future re of textbooks Disposable textbooks These would be materials printed at the bookstore by a computer computer computer com com- puter connected by modem with the publishing houses Teachers would look over the available text materials decide which chapters they wished to use during the quarter and students would be able to order a printout of that material The disposal textbooks may become available in the next two or three years but for it to be a wide spread program program program pro pro- gram youre you're looking at seven to ten years before it would have major impact Ferre said r- r V v Q r t i Ferre envisions dramatic j erre a aJ g P DJ x H c change h in t the h e f future tur o 0 of f f ft t J Jo J f t textbooks Disposable ii P r y yYS f j textbooks I. il a t 5 11 A. A 1 I I. I J r 1 YS Yr Y 1 1 N. N kr lLY 4 When text books are sold this way Ferre believes students will pay less for their books Because Because Be Be- cause materials freight and overhead will all be lowered it can be expected that one text will cost 7 to 10 J |