A Report on the Feasibility of Textbook Rental - IBHE

Current Status of Voluntary Faculty EffortsThe IBHE’s Faculty Advisory Council reports that Illinois faculty members are currentlyemploying many cost-saving alternatives on their own. Among them are:• informing students about the availability of used textbooks;• providing syllabi to students in sufficient time to allow comparison shopping;• rejecting textbooks that inflate costs by bundling workbooks, [CD-ROMS], DVDs andother add ons;• selecting the least expensive editions;• utilizing custom publishing;• utilizing library and electronic reserves; and• utilizing electronic texts.It is important to note that these practices have not been mandated by communitycolleges or public universities. Community colleges and public universities may want to considerbroad adoption of the best practices from the list above.Third-Party Bookstore Recommendations for Addressing High Textbook CostsThe third-party bookstores, which cited bundling, new editions, and slow facultyadoption rates as the primary culprits behind rising textbook prices, provided recommendations toreduce cost as well as. Respondents’ recommendations to reduce costs to students include:• discouraging publishers from bundling materials when materials are not required;• enacting a 3-to-5-year mandatory shelf life for all books that do not have crucial yearlyinformation updates;• requiring faculty members to collaborate with book suppliers to ensure the availability ofused textbooks;• requiring faculty members to publicly post a list of required textbook with sufficient leadtime to enable to comparison shop; and• encouraging institutions to establish rules on the frequency of new edition adoptions.CONCLUSIONAffordability of college is a constant concern for students and their parents and anongoing challenge for higher education administrators, faculty, and policymakers. An issue ofnotable persistence in recent years has been the rising cost of textbooks and other required coursematerial. Some states have reacted with legislation, others with studies. Congress has directedthe Government Accountability Office and the Advisory Committee on Student FinancialAssistance to investigate the driving force behind the cost of textbooks and what can be done tomake them more affordable to students. Within the past three years in Illinois alone, the Board ofHigher Education, the Governor’s Office, and the IBHE’s Student Advisory Committee eachhave issued reports on textbook costs and options to reduce them.This study of the feasibility of textbook rental programs and other cost-saving optionswas mandated by passage of Senate Resolution 692 in the spring 2006 legislative session. The,Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), in conjunction with the Illinois Community College-49-