Mad over prices, students refuse to buy book

Globe and Mail
By ROY MACGREGOR  
Monday, September 17, 2007 – Page A2 

PETERBOROUGH, ON -- The sign, at first surprising, is soon understandable.

"Know the Daily Limit on Your Debit or Credit Card Before you come to the Cash."

The printed sign stands before the checkout at the Trent University bookstore, a typical 
postsecondary outlet in that it is so busy at this time of year that an employee has to stand at the 
doors and serve as fire marshal.

As one student leaves, one from the long line that snakes far down the corridor is allowed to 
enter.

They groan, coming and going.

"Here goes another 125 bucks," a young woman says as she checks her backpack at the entrance.

"Jesus!" a young man says as he flips over a "used" book on organic chemistry: $113.50.

Textbooks, it must be said, have become the student equivalent of what gas prices are to 
commuters, what prescriptions are to the ill who lack benefits.

There is a sense of conspiracy that cannot be proved, a sense of helplessness that cannot be 
helped...

the price of textbooks can be the most infuriating shock to those paying the shot. To those who 
cannot afford to pay the shot, it is much worse.

The reason so many of the stacked books are tagged "used" and seem in such good shape is that 
many of them have hardly been opened - and often barely referred to by teachers and professors 
who stamp "REQUIRED" over the stacks of texts that overflow even the floor space of small 
bookstores like this at the start of each semester.

It is a serious issue - and not just Canadian.

According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office survey, textbook prices almost tripled 
between 1986 and 2004.

Textbook rage has reached a point where the prices have become of interest to Congress. More 
than half of the students involved in one national U.S. study say they have decided to go text-free 
and damn the consequences. Often, there are none, as the "REQUIRED" book at times ends up not 
required at all.

The theories about price hikes vary from reasonable increases in costs to far wilder notions that 
include greedy publishers firing out new editions each year and instructors ensuring their own and 
colleagues' books sell to those who are entirely at their mercy. But no matter the real reasons, the 
very real result is to add a layer of mushrooming cost to those already having trouble making 
tuition...

Full article: http://tinyurl.com/2frmyr

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