Journal sm62704's Journal: College Textbook Affordability Act 11
I ran across an item in the local paper today that I think will interest young slashdotters who haven't yet finished with college. My US Senator, Dick Durbin, has authored the "College Textbook Affordability Act".
The paper says major provisions of the act were "included in the higher education reauthorization signed into law on Aug. 14."
The textbook provision doesn't take effect until July 1, 2010, creating a waiting period he said textbook publishers pushed hard to get. But he urged students, faculty and administrators to work now to minimize costs of needed books.
The law will require publishers to provide in writing to professors the price of books, and also information on other formats in which the material may be available. Publishers also will be required to offer for sale some products that are now bundled -- such as a book, workbook and computer disk -- separately.
"Imagine," Durbin said, "these are professors picking books that they don't have to pay for.
They're picking them for someone else to pay for, and I hope that they'll start putting themselves in the shoes of the students when they start thinking about that cost."
UIS Chancellor Richard Ringeisen said "I've heard from students who
"It really diminishes the quality of their education," she said.
Chris Barron, spokesman for Dr. Steve Sauerberg of Willowbrook, Durbin's GOP opponent in the Nov. 4 election, belittled Durbin's press event.
"If this is what Senator Durbin, the second-ranking member of the United States Senate, is bragging about -- about getting legislation passed that will improve the situation (concerning) college textbooks in 2010, it speaks volumes about what he's actually been able (to accomplish) during his quarter century in Washington," Barron said.
Durbin is one of the few politicians I actually vote for, as opposed to holding my nose and voting for the lesser of two "weevils". He voted against bankrupcy deform, for instance (as did my other Senator, Barack Obama).
Once when I was in school, I had one class where I had to buy a book my professor authored. Some people really have gall!
Library (Score:2)
"I've heard from students who ... have to avoid the courses that they need for their major because they can't afford the books that semester." Ashley Rook, 22
It's called a library, Ashley.
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I worked my way through college too. I went hungry a lot (would have been hungrier if I hadn't been a bussboy at the faculty restaraunt). I don't think it's too much to ask that publishers tell the professors who will be assigning these books what the books are going to cost their students.
It's not like a novel that you can read or not read, buy or not buy. These are books that you NEED, and the publishers know this.
Why is a hardbound novel $20 but a softcover textbook $150? Because they can.
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At my school the few textbooks that the library has tend to wander off quickly. I actually haven't even checked the public library. Either way, my classes either tend to use the book heavily or barely if at all.
Several times I've purchased a book from our bookstore, kept the shrink wrap and labels in place, and gone to a few class sessions in order to judge whether or not I'll actually need the book.
A few times I've had classes where we never cracked the books in class and were not assigned homework out of
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Next semester, i hung out by the campus bookstore and sold my used textbooks for more than the bookstore would buy them back to new students who didnt feel like paying $150/book. everyone wins (except me, the rube that bought them at full price)
people will find a way to get what they need. i agree that textbook prices are outrageous, but do we really need the government sticking its nose in it? how long until office s
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Yes, but the price isn't being regulated. All the bill says is that book publishers have to tell the professors what the books cost. It's a damned shame that it's even needed; the publishers should have been doing it voluntarily all along.
Typical. (Score:1)
Concerning textbooks, I recently graduated from college. As far as I'm concerned, it's a legalized racket. Universities get kickbacks from publishing houses for routinely forcing the curriculum to use the latest edition--which typically consists of a few paragraphs moved around in chapters and reordered numbering with problems. And like you
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FYI, he got back his old account and it looks like he won't be using this one anymore.
http://slashdot.org/journal.pl?op=list&uid=92797 [slashdot.org]
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Sorry for the rant, mcgrew
Hell, I agree with you. I've been out of college since 1979 but every now and then I'll enroll in a class or two here in Springfield just for the hell of it.
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One of my friend's professors, Ron Rabin, over at Buffalo State, said during his orientation: "One thing I am not," he said, while speaking about himself "is a hypocrite. I constantly complained about the price of books while my daughter was in college, and so I wrote a ten dollar paperback and put it up on the internet."
The class then applauded him.
I had a professor that "wrote the book" who was cool. He had the publisher make a paperback pamplet of just the material that we covered in that class for a very reasonable price. He did not get royalties on those either.
It was an Ethics class.