To the average college student, $1,140 is a lot of money, especially when that is how much Bowling Green State University Financial Aid budgeted for a student to spend a year on books and supplies.

Students, administrators and now legislatures are looking for innovative ways to ease the burden.

New legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives proposed funding a study on reducing these costs through textbook rental systems. A bill granting a tax credit for the cost of textbooks was also proposed this year.

For students shelling out thousands of dollars to pay college tuition, buying textbooks is often an afterthought. However, textbooks and supplies at four-year public universities now account for 26 percent of tuition and fees, according to a Government Accounting Office report recently released.

The study found that textbooks prices rose at twice the rate of inflation for the last two decades.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan introduced the Affordable Books for College Act this summer to try to combat the burden. He said he became aware of the issue through his close work with College Democrats at Akron University, Kent State and Youngstown State. The act would start by providing funding for feasibility studies at colleges to explore the possibility of implementing a successful textbook rental program.

Some colleges across the country have a long tradition of textbook rental programs. At least 20 such programs exist, according to the National Association of College Bookstores.

Ryan, a BGSU alumnus, thinks Bowling Green State University is the type of school that would benefit from the Affordable Books for College Act and the loan it would provide to start a rental service.

“A school like BG is the perfect school, not huge like Ohio State, but not a small liberal arts college,” he said. “I think the schools where we really need this are where average middle-class people go and need this help.”

However, BGSU bookstore director Jeff Nelson foresees three stumbling blocks with the idea of textbook rental: start-up costs, faculty and students.

“Let’s say it costs 6 million dollars to start-up, where are we going to get that money? It could very well cost that much,” he said.

Ryan’s bill proposed giving up to 50 eligible schools $25,000 to participate in a feasibility study. If the study found that the school could be successful, then the Department of Education would grant the institution a loan of up to 2.5 million dollars, interest free.

Southeast Missouri State provides a rental system and covers the costs of their program by charging student $17.25 a course. Jan Chisman, director of their bookstore, said she could not imagine the costs of starting a new rental system since the school has had one since its founding.

“But, if I were to start some place else, I would start with the lower level classes that a lot of students take,” she suggested. “In our program, all sections of a class have to use the same book.”

Convincing faculty to agree on the same textbooks could be another problem. Often rental systems are met with skepticism by faculty who fear they will lose academic freedom in choosing the proper course material.

“We don’t pick the books at the bookstore,” said Nelson. “What we do is based on what the faculty wants to do. They would have to buy in to it.”

He said that faculty would have to be able to agree on a uniform book choice and they would have to agree to use the book for a certain number of years for the system to economically work.

But, Congressman Ryan doesn’t feel that faculty should prevent measures that would help students save money.

“I’ve never been a teacher, so I don’t know what all the roadblocks would be, but I would think at some level they would want to participate in this,” he said.

Another rental program participant, Appalachian University in North Carolina, is currently embroiled in a bitter controversy between faculty and students over their textbook rental system, which has been in place for over 55 years.

Last year, its Faculty Senate voted to abolish the system, citing concern for academic freedom. The system is now under review by the newly formed University Bookstore Committee.

Ultimately, students are the ones who would hopefully benefit from a textbook rental program. So, their support is a vital element to success.

Allison Catalano, junior, who spent nearly $500 on books, believed that she would only use a rental system for certain books.

“I would do it for the introductory level classes that just touch on topics, but I would probably end up buying some books so I could reference them in the future, like for a thesis paper or something like that,” she said.

As a bookstore director, Nelson said once you “do the math,” it might not be as big of a deal as students think. Some students already found other creative ways of cutting their costs.

Thrifty students waited until classes started to decide if they really needed an assigned book, or they try just copy pages of the book from a friend. Some students shop on Web sites like campusbooks.com, which searches a variety of other Web sites to find the best price for a specific textbook.

Even the University bookstore has purchased books on half.com, according to Nelson.

For now, the University bookstore is employing a different alternative for cutting textbook cost. It was chosen to participate in the Universal Digital Textbook program that offers books in the electronic format. The program allows students to download books for up to one-third of the price.

The program was new for the fall 2005 semester. Twenty digital textbook titles were available for 20 courses. Almost 2,600 students were enrolled in courses where they could use the electronic format. The bookstore sold 19 copies.

Initially, Nelson was concerned that they were not able to sell more copies, but said the publishers consider the amount of interest a success.

Nelson said the bookstore wants to continue to participate in the digital program, and they have had no negative feedback from students or faculty. As far as participating in a rental system, he believes there would be many potential problems to consider at BGSU. He believes the programs may be easier for community colleges to implement since they have more uniformity in their courses and books.

But, logistically, the University bookstore already provides a form book rental as financial aid for post-secondary high school students, as well as for athletes, with the aid of Student Athlete Services.

Garnering faculty support and finding the funds are still concerns, but for Ryan optimism runs high for this innovative way for Congress to support higher education.

“Let’s get this up and running,” he said. “We spend $1.5 billion a week in Iraq. It is only going to cost around $30 million to try this.”

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