RESOLUTION 88

A RESOLUTION TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT TO FORMALLY ENCOURAGE DEVELOPMENT OF PRACTICES TO MAKE TEXTBOOKS AFFORDABLE

WHEREAS,   according the investigation by the Government Accountability Office of Congress and a survey by the Student Public Interest Research Groups (Student PIRGs), students spend an average of $898 per year on textbooks, or 26 percent of the cost of tuition at an average four year university and 72 percent of tuition at the average community college; and,

WHEREAS,   textbook prices have increased at four times the rate of inflation between 1994 and 2004; and,

WHEREAS,   textbook publishers add extra items to textbooks - such as CD-ROMs and workbooks - that drive up average prices by 10-40% and that over 65% of faculty surveyed say they "rarely" or "never" use; and,

WHEREAS,   textbook publishers put new editions on the market frequently - often with few content changes - making the less expensive used editions obsolete and difficult to find, even though 76% of faculty surveyed said they thought new editions were justified "half the time" or less; and,

WHEREAS,   over 700 math and physics professors from 150 universities have called on Thomson Learning to stop issuing unnecessary new editions of it's introductory math and physics books; and,

WHEREAS,   access to education is so important to society that the education market must be held to a higher standard; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED,  The North Carolina State Student Senate declares that any commercial practices that serve to drive up educational costs while providing little to no additional educational value are unacceptable; and, be it further;

RESOLVED,            the North Carolina State Student Senate calls upon college textbook                                               publishers to adopt the following practices:

·         Keep the cost of producing textbooks as low as possible and keep textbook editions on the market for as long as possible without sacrificing educational content;

·         Give faculty and students to option of buying textbooks "unbundled";

·         Give preference to paper or on-line supplements to current editions over producing entirely new editions;

·         Pass on cost-savings to students once purely online textbooks are on the market; and

·         Disclose to faculty member all of the different products they sell - including both bundled and unbundled options, list how much each of those products cost, and the length of time they intend to produce the current edition;

RESOLVED, the North Carolina State Student Senate encourages individual faculty and departments to give preference to publishers and textbooks that incorporate the above practices when the educational value is comparable; and, be it further

RESOLVED, the North Carolina State Student Senate also encourages individual faculty and departments to submit textbook orders in as early as possible so that students and the bookstore have as much time as possible to search for low-cost books; and, be it further;

RESOLVED,  the North Carolina State Student Senate will forward a copy of this resolution to the following parties: the Association of American Publishers, Association of Student Governments, Chancellor James Oblinger, The Faculty Senate, Richard Hayes Director of the NCSU Bookstore, Kevin Hannegan Textbook Manager at the NCSU Bookstore, Local News Sources, The Technician, and the Student Campaign for Affordable Textbooks.