Esteban Cortez / The Collegian

With the fall semester finally coming to a close, it’s time to turn in that last paper, present that final project and sell back those textbooks that probably cost an arm and a leg.

At Fresno State, the Kennel Bookstore will be hosting its buyback days Tuesday, Dec. 6 through Friday, Dec. 16.

With the cost of a college education on the rise, some textbooks prices are climbing as well.

Natalie Moore, an art history major at Fresno State, is only in her freshman year and is already wondering how she will be able to afford textbooks for the upcoming semesters.

“For just this semester I think I spent like $350,” Moore said. “It’s just ridiculous. Half of the textbooks I didn’t even open, but my professors said that we really needed them so I hurried and bought them at the used price, thinking that I would save myself some money.”

“A lot of times a professor will change their mind, so we might have given a student $50 for a textbook when it’s now only worth $10 to us,” said Ron Durham, director of the Kennel Bookstore. “So we are affected by budget cuts too.”

Durham explained that when classes are cancelled or professors are terminated it makes things at the bookstore more complicated because specific textbooks will either be in high demand or basically worthless.

For the fall semester, professors were supposed to submit textbook requirements by Halloween, but so far only about 65 percent of professors have done so.

“Our goal would be to buy back 100 percent of the textbooks, but unfortunately we can’t,” said Susan Bartel, the book department manager at the Kennel Bookstore. “And it pretty much works the same way at every other university.”

Bartel, who has worked at the Kennel Bookstore for 22 years, said that when she realized the price of textbooks was continually on the rise, she tried to help by giving students the rental option.

“We actually went very early into the whole rental idea,” Bartel said. “The Kennel Bookstore was actually the first college store in the country to develop a partnership with an online rental company.

“We knew that we needed to do something so that students could afford books,” Bartel said.

The Kennel Bookstore has a partnership with the online textbook rental website, Chegg. Students can rent and return textbooks from Chegg and the Kennel Bookstore.

“This semester we had over 400 titles available for rentals,” Bartel said. “For the spring semester we are hoping to have over 500 titles.”

Although students have the option to rent or buy textbooks, Bartel said that the best thing they can do is to confirm that textbook orders have been submitted.

“Students should talk to their professors and make sure that the book orders have been turned in on time,” Bartel said.

Durham explained that contrary to what many people think, the Kennel Bookstore is actually a private, non-profit organization, so all of the money earned stays on campus.

“We really are here as a service which is why we are looking for alternative ways for students,” Bartel said.