R 88, Making Textbooks Affordable ACT
Referred to the Tuition and Fees Committee by the Student Senate President
The Tuition and Fees Committee reported the bill to Senate by consent, TF-12
Adopted by consent
Online Text
(as of 1-31-2006, as initially introduced)
RESOLUTION 88
A RESOLUTION TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO FORMALLY
ENCOURAGE DEVELOPMENT OF PRACTICES TO MAKE TEXTBOOKS AFFORDABLE
Short Title: Making Textbooks Affordable Act (Public)
Sponsored
by: Senator Compton
Second Reading: February 1, 2006 Version Date: January
18, 2006
Referred
to: .
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.