Federal law aims to ease burden of textbook costs

That was his estimate for the cost of the eight or so textbooks and novels that filled his black basket at Labyrinth Books on Wednesday. Schleier chose to shop at the Nassau Street bookstore, rather than at a potentially cheaper online alternative, to avoid shipping delays.

“I’m in a lot of reading-intensive classes,” he said. “If I don’t have the books early, it’s probably not going to be a good thing.”

A new federal law aims to help students like Schleier by requiring that colleges and universities post, “to the maximum extent practicable,” the ISBNs and retail price details of all textbooks on their online course schedule, so that students can have the information they need to shop around in advance. Alternatively, according to a June announcement from the Department of Education, schools can link course schedules to a site such as an affiliated bookstore. The law also calls on textbook publishers to be more transparent about pricing and the differences between current and previous editions.

Princeton is compliant with the law because lists are posted on Labyrinth’s website and linked to the Registrar’s site, University spokeswoman Emily Aronson said in an e-mail. But the textbook buying experience remains unchanged for students, who still have to go through Labyrinth to find ISBNs and prices for most textbooks. Aronson said that the University plans to debut a new tool next year that will centralize required reading lists, benefitting students and making it easier for faculty to order the books.

The University was “in the midst of testing” a web portal in fall 2009, Aronson said, more than a year after the legislation passed. The initial system, however, required “substantial modification,” and the University chose to postpone the rollout of the new portal until fall 2011, she said.

The textbook provision — which took effect July 1 — is one component of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, spanning four of the law’s 431 pages. The legislation, which was enacted in August 2008, reauthorized federal funding for higher education and included a set of guidelines aimed to ease the cost burden for students.

The law was prompted by a 2005 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office that showed that the average cost of books and supplies at four-year public institutions was $898, with textbook prices increasing at twice the rate of inflation over the past two decades.

With the new tool on hold until next year, the University has instructed students to check syllabi on Blackboard or with Labyrinth, according to a statement on the Registrar’s website.

However, faculty members across several departments indicated that they were not given instructions on how to make their syllabi compliant with the federal law.

“No faculty here have heard about it,” Wilson School professor Stan Katz said.

Aronson said that “the University also is working to inform the faculty about the legislation and the new tool that the University is developing.”

Katz said he doesn’t have any objections to posting the more detailed textbook information.

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“I want my students to get the materials at the lowest possible cost,” he said.

“I have to buy the books too,” he added, noting that a class he teaches, WWS 325: Civic Society and Public Policy, requires 13 monographs.

Several professors contacted said they were taking measures to ease the textbook cost burden. Ecology and evolutionary biology professor Jim Gould said that he is using an older version of a textbook to allow students to purchase used books at lower costs.

Students said they welcomed the cost-saving benefits of the law.

Providing detailed textbook information ahead of the start of class would “definitely save ... some money,” Hollis Barber ’11 said.

“I think anyone would appreciate more time,” Ben Neumann ’14 said as he browsed books for HIS 380: The United States and World Affairs at Labyrinth Bookstore. “It’s a lot of money.”

While browsing through books for English and comparative literature classes in Labyrinth, Philip Halsey ’13 noted that when the new tool is implemented next year, “I think a lot of people would not come here.”

Labyrinth co-owner Dorothea von Moltke wasn’t so certain. “It’s hard to predict how it’s going to play out for the store,” she said, as a long line of students in front of her snaked around the cashiers.

“We hope there’s still a role for the non-virtual buying experience,” she said, adding that Labyrinth has been working with the University in developing the new tool.

Labyrinth’s book database, which for many students is the only way to figure out required course reading before classes begin, went online Tuesday. Von Moltke said that Labyrinth begins asking professors for book lists in April, and lists keep rolling in through the first month of classes.

“Almost every list goes through several stages of revisions in an exchange with professors,” von Moltke added in an e-mail.

By providing the information to Labyrinth, the University is complying with one of the law’s other requirements.

It is currently unclear how compliance will be regulated. “The law specifically prohibits the Education Department from regulating on this issue,” department spokeswoman Jane Glickman said in an e-mail. “However, schools must comply with the law.”

Congress tasked the GAO to complete a report on compliance by July 2013.

The law technically only applies to textbooks, and not to other course materials like novels, according to Nicole Allen, the textbooks campaign director for the Student Public Interest Research Groups, which advocated in favor of the legislation. The University’s new tool, however, is expected to encompass all books, course reading packets, DVDs and CDs, Aronson said.

The new law also regulates textbook publishers. Publishers are now required to notify faculty of the prices that the publisher would charge the bookstore, and, “if available,” the price the book would cost the general public. Publishers are also required to list “substantial content revisions” made from earlier editions of textbooks, in an effort to increase transparency in the creation of new editions. In addition, publishers who sell textbooks bundled with supplementary materials must make each individual item available separately in most cases.

“In the end it’s a consumer protection issue,” history professor Brad Simpson said in an e-mail. “The students should not be held captive consumers to the most expensive sellers.”