Students say books too costly

By ELIZABETH LEFFALL

Despite the passing of textbook legislation designed to lower costs by 30 percent, some students at Fresno State say they aren’t seeing the difference no matter where they go.

“I haven’t bought my accounting book yet because it’s almost $120,” said Jorge Lopez, a senior liberal studies major.

State Assembly Bill 2477 went into effect Jan. 1.

The bill was created to encourage the ‘unbundling’ of instructional materials to give students the options of buying only the materials they need and to cut overall textbook costs in half.

Marisol Arciniega, a senior majoring in international business, said that, bundled or not, she’s seen little savings.

“I bought [my books] Wednesday. I paid $140 for a book for my international marketing class. Everything is more expensive than last semester,” Arciniega said.

Citing a 2003 survey by the California Public Interest Research Group, the creators of the bill found that the average student in California spends almost $900 on textbooks in a school year.

Although biology sophomore Kendall DeJong purchased her books on campus at the Kennel Bookstore, she said the Sequoia Bookstore on Shaw Avenue is her first choice.

“Sequoia might have been cheaper, but it’s more convenient to come to the [Kennel] bookstore. Even with that, my calculus book was still $105,” DeJong said.

Andrea Thrower, a junior majoring in broadcast journalism, said the Kennel Bookstore had everything she needed.

“Books everywhere are higher. I just come to this bookstore because one, I know that they have the books because all the teachers order their books from here and two, I know for sure that I can always return the books that I buy here to other places and get money back,” Thrower said.

In an earlier interview, Ron Durham, director of the Kennel Bookstore said Fresno State still has ‘the lowest markup, of 23 percent, in the CSU system.’

“This campus is very supportive of trying to keep textbook prices down and our buyback prices are better than the competition,” Durham said.

“University Bookstore and the others around don’t offer the packets many of the teachers request us to buy. Since Kennel has those, I figure I might as well come here and buy everything else,” Lopez said.

Despite the bookstores best efforts, some students are still seeing empty bookshelves.

Criminology senior Shawn Keebler said he paid $95 for his anthropology book, one of the few books he could find.

“Most of the books I needed were sold out and they’re not in the library. I haven’t checked around other places yet but I will. I came to Kennel first because the books are supposed to be there,” Keebler said.

Lynn Lorber, consultant to the Assembly Higher Education Committee said in a telephone interview that even though the bill has taken effect, the lowering of book prices and their availability will be up to bookstores, teachers and publishers.

“The State Assembly has done its job, now it’s up to them to make the rest happen,” she said.