Books or bread

Recent increases in tuition across the nation, coupled with governmental cutbacks for student aid, have added new poignancy to the phrase "impoverished student" with all its colloquial variations. Financial need is the reason most students cannot meet a four-year graduation goal. Economic difficulties force many students to juggle studies with a part-time job. Dr. Maleakal Mathew, a psychiatrist at the I.U. Health Center, offered the explanation that it is the fact that most students need to work to finance their studies that causes higher instances of depression and anxiety on campus, which lead to lowered productivity. \nBut even after the bursar bill has been paid for the semester -- all the quirky fees included -- students do not get a chance to take a breath of relief, financially speaking. There are still textbooks to buy in order to attend all the classes that have just been paid for. \nWhile the price of consumer goods has increased 51 percent in the last 20 years, the price of textbooks and other educational paraphernalia has risen 238 percent ("When books break the bank," The New York Times, Tuesday). The culprits are the publishing companies that produce new editions more frequently -- reducing the chance of buying secondhand texts -- and introduce shrink-wrapped versions that included such amenities as CD-ROMs, study guides and dictionaries. Even if students find these additions superfluous, they still have to pay for them. \nIn a private university, according to College Board findings, textbooks can run up to $800 a year -- an equal amount a semester for science or business majors. The number is a little lower for state schools like IU, but the costs can still be crippling. \nMost freshmen are intimidated by their entry into higher education, and they will initially buy every book on the list, including literary works they may already have from high school. But as students become acclimated to college life, many take creative approaches to the textbook dilemma in order to avoid bookstores. They use library reserve copies, make Xeroxes, share textbooks (and the costs) and browse the Internet for used books at sites such as www.bigwords.com or www.eCampus.com. The National Association of College Stores has concluded, with some alarm, that 20 percent of all students no longer buy all the required texts, up from 15 percent five years ago. \nSome public colleges have tried to address the discrepancy between rising textbook costs and the financial means of their students by offering rental services. At Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill., students pay $7.95 per credit hour to rent basic texts, having to buy only the workbooks. Southeastern Louisiana University, Central Missouri State University and some University of Wisconsin campuses propose similar programs. The drawback is that students cannot write in or highlight the text, and professors are obligated to make a three-year commitment to a specific text. But it is a step in the right direction. \n At graduate level, there may be other solutions. Andrew Graff, a graduate student in the Department of Germanic Studies, says students tend to purchase books from International Book Import Service in Tennessee, to circumvent the "ungodly" mark-ups at the bookstore. They can buy German books practically at their list price, and the customer must only pay U.S. shipping from Tennessee. "Be it textbooks or course packets, many students working their way through college or simply not rolling in dough find it hard to make do," Graff said. \nUniversities -- particularly public universities -- need to recognize the financial difficulties plaguing a large part of the student body, and help relieve some of the burden by offering alternatives to the expense of textbooks. A student should not have to choose between a chemistry text, which can run up to $170, and eating tuna fish for the remainder of the semester.