Aaron Johnson – General Assignment Reporter
College is expensive. That is not news to anyone in this day and age. But most college students around the country – like SCSU junior George Farrah – will have a similar mind set when it comes to one issue as far as college expenses.
“I think that it is ridiculous how expensive college textbooks are,” said Farrah, a West Hartford, Conn. resident.
Textbooks are obviously necessary for students in college, but many share Farrah’s frustration about the prices.
“Publishers set the prices of all the books,” said SCSU Bookstore Director Larry Gal, “The publishers will provide a cost price for us and we mark it up 25 percent for books and 30 percent for packages, and that is the industry average.”
Despite these facts, the price of textbooks can be a burden for many students. Some seek out other companies – such as Amazon – to buy textbooks.
“We know students are going to look elsewhere for books. But we also hope that they look here first because we guarantee what we sell. You may get a book from Amazon and it may not be the right book or something may be wrong with it. Here you get everything you need,” said Gal.
Sometimes students do, however look elsewhere. Brianna Malone, an exercise science major from Long Island, said she tries to get her books online when she can because it is usually cheaper.
“I prefer to get my books online, but Financial Aid helps pay for the books from the bookstore so sometime I have no choice,” said Malone.
Another alternative that the SCSU Bookstore offers is renting and buying used books. The used books are cheaper and when renting, books are to be returned at the end of the semester. Many students decide to take this route at the beginning of the semester, which is always the busiest time of the year for the bookstore.
“We hire a lot of students to help us out and it’s pretty busy,” said Gal, “You try and service all the students that are coming in and it’s hard because we don’t have enough working for the amount of students we have coming into the store. But we are prepared.
Malone said she wishes that the bookstore did, however, offer more used and rented books, while also looking into the possibility of using more E-books.
“I think the books are way too expensive,” said Malone. “They should offer more used books and they should let us rent more books and possibly more E-books. I think it’s ridiculous the amount we have to pay.”
Despite the frustration from students, Gal said that parents that come into the bookstore to buy books for their child are more understanding.
“We don’t deal with too many upset parents because once we explain the process to them, they understand how it all works,” said Gal.
The frustration of textbook prices comes into play for scenarios like students paying for their own books and an instructor or professor may or may not use the material from the book. Farrah said that the frustrating thing is he and his friends and classmates all have issues buying books, especially when it starts to affect the grade of a class.
“I just don’t think,” said Farrah, “that I should have to go half on a book and share it with my friend because it is $150 and neither of us can afford it even though we need it to pass a class.”
