Kansas University freshman Amanda Thow spent about $600 last semester on books and sold back what she could for $75.

“I think it’s outrageous,” Thow said. “It’s like worse than buying a new car and trying to sell it after a year.”

KU students are joining the fight to keep textbook costs down.

KU’s student government has joined a nationwide effort, involving student government associations and student public interest research groups, to beat back the prices. The Affordable Textbooks Campaign is calling for publishers to keep textbook editions on the market as long as possible, rather than issue frequent new editions. They want publishers to allow professors to order unbundled textbooks that don’t have added features like CD-ROMs, which raise textbook prices. And they want more forums for students to buy used books.

“I think it’s a problem,” said Hannah Love, a KU student and Freshman/Sophomore College of Liberal Arts and Sciences senator for KU’s student government. “The more research I read about it the more I realize we’re getting screwed here.”

According to a July report of the Government Accountability Office, a typical student at a four-year institution spent an estimated $898 for books and supplies for the 2003-04 school year. In the last two decades, costs increased at twice the inflation rate.

Katie Rose Hargreaves, an Olathe junior at KU, browses through the stacks of books at the Jayhawk Bookstore, 1420 Crescent Road.

KU has an online book exchange open only to students. The forum helps, Love said.

“No one cares if it’s an old book or a new book,” she said.

Love said the campaign would continue.

“We’re young and energetic and ready to go,” she said. “If they’re not scared, they better be.”

The national campaign has been going on for a few years and is making headway, said Hannah Nguyen, coordinator of the national campaign, based in Portland, Ore.

Alternative publishers offering similar services without the glossy thrills have popped up, and there have been cases of professors successfully bargaining for cheaper prices, Nguyen said.

The campaign isn’t without its critics. Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for Higher Education with the Association of American Publishers, said the campaign was filled with inaccuracies, and that even the GAO report was flawed.

“They’re selling snake oil to so many of the students,” he said, “and it’s not really fair.”

Hildebrand said the GAO report’s estimate regarding textbook costs included the cost of class supplies, which many people fail to report or fail to realize. He also said the report’s conclusions about textbook price increases over time failed to take into account changes in the technology. Essentially, he said, a book today looks better and is more advanced than a book two decades ago.

“It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison,” he said.

• KU graduate students launch textbook rental Web site (08-31-05)
• Affordable Textbooks Campaign
• Hawzo.com

As for the practice of bundling additional information and offerings with a textbook, Hildebrand said the add-ons, such as online quizzes and homework, helped raise student success rates.

“There’s no supporting data for what they’re saying,” Hildebrand said of the campaign. “It’s being spun. We think it’s unfair to the publishers, and we think it’s unfair to the students. And it’s particularly unfair to the faculty.”

In response to the allegations, Nguyen said, “We have the support of two years of our own research as well as research by the GAO that proves that publishers artificially increase the price of textbooks.”

Thow, the KU freshman, said she may hold off buying books this semester and try to figure out which ones she really needs.

She bought one new $90 book last semester that she opened only once.

“That’s groceries for like a month,” Thow said of the money she feels she wasted.