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"Here at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse the students pay just under $75 per semester to rent all of the textbooks that they need for the semester," said Cory Miller, director of the university's rental program in an e-mail.
Textbook rental programs are in place at about 20 universities and colleges across the United States. Schools such as Southeastern Louisiana State, the University of California at Berkeley, and seven University of Wisconsin campuses have implemented successful textbook rental programs.
Students renting textbooks could save an average of $400 a year on textbooks, according to fees listed on these universities bookstores' Web sites.
The California PIRG published "Affordable Textbooks for the 21st Century: A Guide to Establishing Textbook Rental Services" in July 2005. The study promotes the implementation of textbook rental programs and highlights a 12-step program that universities can use as a guide to instituting textbook rental programs.
The program is not rigid. Rental programs are designed to suit each individual institution. A rental program can be run from an existing retail space on campus. The programs can be funded by course-based fees, credit hour-based fees or per-book charges. The students often have an option to buy the book, to add to their personal library, at a reduced cost.
Recently, the publishing industry has been under fire for their practices in driving up the cost of textbooks. Publishers are flooding the market with new editions of books that contain marginal changes in content or cosmetic changes only. This makes it impossible for students to purchase used books for a course and limits the selling back of books once the course is over.
Another way publishers drive up the cost is by selling "bundled" materials. A textbook might only be available "bundled" with a workbook or CD-ROM. Often these additional materials are never used in the course. Textbook rental programs inhibit the publishers' ability to continue with these costly practices.
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse's rental program is a successful case study in textbook rental programs.
"We are self-sustaining. Our operating budget is generated from the fees the students pay, the sale of textbooks to used book companies and on half.com, and from the fines that students pay. We do not receive funding from the state," Miller said in an e-mail. "The program runs very smoothly. We have developed a pretty good working relationship with the departments and most instructors."
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is another branch campus that offers a textbook rental program.
"UW-Whitewater undergraduate students pay a fee which is included in their tuition. This year it's $60 per semester for 12+ credit, full-time equivalency," said Terri Meinel, director of the program.
A February 2005 study done by the Illinois Board of Higher Education surveyed faculty and administration at 10 large, research-oriented state colleges. In its report the board concluded that although the rental programs save students money, a rental program would be inappropriate for large, research-based universities in Illinois.
The faculty expressed concern about keeping texts in circulation for up to three years without an edition change. In some fast-changing fields, such as technology and medicine, this type of commitment to a text would be illogical. However, many of the current programs have a policy and procedure addressing text change if faculty deems it necessary.
High start-up cost was cited as a financial restriction for implementing the rental programs. The universities would need to purchase the textbooks, find storage facilities for the inventory and install software to track the books.
As an answer to the complaints of high start-up costs for textbook rental programs, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, proposed a $50 million pot in low-interest federal loans to persuade universities in New York to initiate textbook rental programs.
"After they pay tuition, parents and students are getting slapped with shockingly high costs for textbooks in class after class, at school after school," Schumer said in a February 2005 press release. "This means real dollars and real savings for middle-class families who have to beg and borrow to send their kids to college."
While the debate of textbook rental programs in continues, two University of Kansas students took the matter into their own hands.
The two graduate students started their own online textbook rental program, Hawzo.com. The program uses the Internet to facilitate the renting of textbooks from students' personal libraries. Students can borrow books for up to six months for as little as $20.
"We currently have inquiries from other universities to extend this service to their universities. We hope and plan to do this very soon," the Hawzo Team said in an e-mail.
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