The first week of classes passed and the typical Ohio State rituals occurred. Tens of thousands of students came back, moved into their residence halls or apartments, and prepped for the start of their classes. And of course, preparing for classes in universities today means buying hundreds of dollars worth of books every quarter or semester.
That’s an unacceptable situation that needs to stop.

There’s actually no logical explanation for why textbook prices are the way they are today. According to Congress’ investigative Government Accountability Office, students today spend an average of $900 every year on textbooks alone as these textbooks have tripled in price from 1986 to 2004, growing at twice the rate of inflation.

It just doesn’t seem right. It almost seems like a scam, especially with the nature of textbooks in college. There’s a very good chance that the books I buy this week for my classes are going to be outdated and can’t be sold back once I am done. And this of course doesn’t even address the concern many students have with how over-bloated their textbooks seem – will the class you’re attending really be able to cover all the material in the ten pound book you’re forced to carry around campus? 

Alternatives are being explored and have been for quite some time now… but they’re doing that very slowly. Recent innovations have surfaced and give me hope that perhaps one day the ludicrous practice of paying thousands of dollars on textbooks that I will only use for a quarter or two might come to an end.

A couple suggested solutions seem promising. A company by the name of Chegg came up with a renowned and reputable system of having students exchange books with one another, renting them for a quarter or semester instead of buying an entirely new book.

Also, Amazon’s release of their long awaited Kindle DX electronic reading device is a great step forward. They’re currently experimenting with a few textbook companies who have expressed interest in putting their books on the device, at a rate that would be much cheaper than the current solution, not to mention a lot lighter and more environmentally friendly.

That being said, however, there’s still a long way to go. The current textbook situation just can’t keep going on. An alternative viable solution, whether rentals or electronic books, has to happen to lighten the load on students.

While I patiently wait for that to happen, though, I have to now run to the bookstore to buy the rest of my heavy, expensive, over-bloated textbooks.