Textbook “sticker shock"
puts college students in bind
by Susan Warmbrunn
Knight-Ridder Tribune
August 30, 2000
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo
Three days after fall semester classes
began at the University of Colorado
at Colorado Springs, Joe Dilwood
still hadn't bought his books. He
wasn’t procrastinating he was sav
ing up.
"1 don’t have the money yet." he
Each semester, the sociology ma
jor struggles to pay his textbook bill.
He’s taken out loans, shared books
with friends, begged professors for a
copy of the course materials.
Dilwood, a junior, estimates he
spends $3OO per semester on books.
Like many students going back to
college this month, Dilwood will find
himself standing at a bookstore cash
register asking: "Are you sure that’s
right’? Are you sure?’’
And like many college students,
he’ll find himself basing some edu
cational choices on whether he can
afford the books. He’s never actu
ally been able to buy every book on
his reading lists, “because they're
that expensive." he said. Other stu
dents have had to postpone enroll
ment over the cost of books, and stu
dent advocacy groups are now tak
ing up the cause nationally.
The National Association of Col
lege Stores frequently hears about
student "sticker shock’’ over books,
said spokeswoman Laura
Nakoneczny. The average nation
wide cost of a college textbook in
1998 w'as $61.66, up about $4 from
1997, the most recent figures avail
able from the NACS.
Students recently surveyed by the
NAC’S report putting out an average
At William
Woods U., it
pays to play
by Claire Zulkey
Campus Correspondent
Georgetown University
August 29, 2000
Call it a bribe or encourage
ment, but William Woods Univer
sity in Fulton, Mo., may have
found a sure-fire way to get its stu
dents more involved in school ac
tivities. Freshmen and new trans
fer students this fall will receive
a $5,000 discount in tuition sim
ply for signing a contract in which
they agree to attend campus events
or join clubs. Commuter students
will each receive $2,500.
“We had noticed a lack ot stu
dent involvement,” says Dr. Lance
Kramer, the school’s academic
dean. “What would be a vital por
tion of undergraduate life was be
ing missed. We wanted to empha
size the importance of student ac
tivity.”
Under the L.E.A.D. (Leading,
Educating, Achieving, Develop
ing) Award program (which is op
tional), students will earn points
by participating in any of a
plethora of activities offered, from
Black History Month Program
ming to the University Horse
Show. They must earn 4 points a
month, and 45 points for the aca
demic year, to be eligible for an
other $5,000 as students. That
means that if students sign up only
to slack off and not attend, they’ll
lose their entitlement.
So far, the program, which, as
far as Dr. Kramer knows, is unique
to WWU, has met with a very
positive response. "At this point,
about all of the incoming fresh
man class has opted for it,” he
says, thus lowering their tuition to
$8,200 per year.
of $275 per term for books $l6B
for new' texts and $lO7 for used, the
NACS says.
But everyone says w'hat you spend
depends on what you study.
Stefanie Ekerholm, a sophomore
business marketing major at CU-
Springs, went book buying last week
and rang up a tally of $163.71. A
friend, who’s studying engineering,
won’t likely get off for so little, she
said.
"The more technical the course is,
the bigger your book is going to be,
the bigger your bill will be,”
Ekerholm said.
Aaron Huston, the executive direc
tor of the Colorado Student Associa
tion, said students look at those prices
and believe "there’s got to be some
body making a boatload of money
somewhere."
But a breakdown of the average
textbook dollar shows no one is pull
ing in huge profits. The majority of
money spent about 75 cents of that
dollar goes to the publisher, ac
cording to data compiled by the
NACS and the Association of Ameri
can Publishers, the national trade as
sociation. Of that, just over 7 cents
is profit. About 11.5 cents goes to
the author. The college bookstore
makes a profit of about 4 cents on
each dollar of a new textbook.
Bookstores usually buy used text
books back from students at about 50
percent of the price of a new book
but resell them at 75 percent of a new
book’s retail price, Nakoneczny said.
Book publishing profits generally
"are not going to knock your socks
off," said Judith Platt, a spokes
woman for the Association of Ameri
can Publishers. She estimated that
profits from books trade or textr
book range between 4 and 9 cents
Trouble looms ahead filling the teaching pipeline
by Maura Kelly
Chicago Tribune
August 30, 2000
When Amy Paul graduated from
Indiana University last year, many
of her friends joked that they would
cam higher salaries in the business
world than she would make as a
teacher.
In fact, some of Paul’s friends
who work as computer consultants
or accountants earned nearly double
the $30,201 salary she received this
year as a teacher at Bloom High
School in Chicago Heights. But
Paul, 23, ignored the lure of better
paying jobs in other professions she
had considered, such as politics and
journalism.
“I felt like a better way for me to
bring about social change was
through the classroom,” said Paul,
who was one of 53 new teachers
hired by Bloom Township High
School District 206 last year.
Paul’s dedication to teaching is
what many schools across the
county are banking on this year as
they search for qualified teachers to
head their classrooms. The nation’s
schools are facing a teacher short
age caused by surging enrollments,
an aging teacher force and low sala
ries. In the next 10 years, the U.S.
Department of Education estimates,
schools across the country will need
to hire 2.2 million teachers.
“The need to replace and attract
and retain teachers will have to be
addressed immediately, and the ef
forts need to be ongoing,” said Celia
Lose, spokeswoman for the Ameri
can Federation of Teachers, the
country’s second-largest teachers
union, with more than 1 million
members.
Lavish salaries offered during
booming economic times by busi
nesses are drawing away some po
tential teachers, educators say. The
AFT’s annual teachers’ salary sur-
jrkl
on the dollar.
So why does a 300-page paperback
Spanish textbook cost $75? Like ev
erything else, textbooks follow mar
ket and marketing trends.
Open up a 20-year-old textbook and
you would see a lot of actual text
heavy on the gray matter, light on the
pyrotechnics,” Nakoneczny said.
Today, readers and teachers expect
pizazz four-color graphics, color
photos, fun font sizes, she said. More
USA Today, less Wall Street Journal.
Unlike the latest John Grisham
bestseller, there’s no mass production
and no assumption of an eager mar
ket, Platt said.
Instead, there is a “captive audi
ence,” says Corye Barbour, the
Washington D.C.-based legislative
director of the U.S. Student Associa
tion. While Barbour acknowledges
there are legitimate reasons why text
book costs are so high, "people have
to have those textbooks so people
take advantage,” she said.
Also, in the textbook market,
smaller general demand breeds a
greater market choice. Grisham’s
fans are always going to look for
Grisham’s books, but a college lan
guage professor can have dozens of
different Spanish textbooks compet
ing to be his course material. Fac
ulty members also expect supple
mentary materials with their text
books such as teaching editions, vid
eos, and computer software that are
usually supplied to them free of
charge, Platt said.
For a student like Marla Smith,
who works full-time at an assembly
plant and takes classes full-time at
Pikes Peak Community College, the
size of the book bill affected her edu-
cational options.
A couple of years ago, Smith
vey for 1998-99 shows that the av
erage beginning teacher’s pay na
tionwide was $26,639, and the av
erage teacher’s salary in the coun
try was $40,574.
In Illinois, which has the 10th
highest teacher salaries in the coun
try, the average beginning teacher’s
pay was $28,954. and the average
teacher’s salary was $45,286, Apr
statistics show.
Comparably, college graduates
who enter engineering can earn an
average of $44,362 annually, those
entering sales or marketing can
bring home an average of $36,278,
and graduates going into the finan
cial field can earn an average of
$38,234, AFT statistics show.
“People who hold the purse
strings need to look at enhancing
salaries and working conditions to
attract and retain highly qualified
teachers,” Lose said.
The need for higher pay is high
lighted in the Chicago area, where
many school systems had a hard
time finding qualified math and sci
ence teachers for the next academic
year. Many new teachers are not
trained in those subjects, and those
who are can find better-paying jobs
in engineering or computers, edu
cators said.
“They’re at a premium,” said Gail
Ward, principal of Payton Math/Sci
ence/World Language College Pre
paratory High School, Chicago’s
newest high school, set to open in
August at 1034 N. Wells St.
Ward recruited about 30 teachers,
but only after visiting national uni
versities and placing advertisements
in major newspapers and educa
tional publications.
Some districts nationwide are de-
vising even more creative ways of
attracting teachers. Massachusetts,
for example, offers $20,000 signing
bonuses to teachers hired for a pub
lic school in the state. Teachers get
$B,OOO the first year and $4,000 for
planned to go back to school. Her
financial aid covered tuition but not
books. “1 had to postpone going to
school because I couldn't come up
with $4OO for my books,” she said.
Smith's financial aid now pays for
everything from tuition and fees to
books, but stories like Smith’s are
one of the reasons some student ad-
vocacy groups now are taking on “the
textbook issue.”
Access to education decreases as
educational expenses increase,
Barbour said. The USSA has ap
proached federal legislators to try to
persuade them to consider exempt
ing textbooks from sales tax.
“We don’t place taxes on tuition,
and books hold a similar position in
higher education,” Barbour said.
Campuses across the country have
come up with ways to attack the
problem. Some have textbook rent
als, others student swap programs.
Technology has opened alterna
tives to traditional textbook buying.
Some online textbook sellers adver
tise savings of up to 40 percent. The
NACS sued one of those companies
over such claims and settled out of
court by agreeing on specific guide
lines about advertising claims, said
Nakoneczny of NACS.
So-called bi-textbooks books
online or on CD also are making
a debut on the market. But that’s for
students of the future to think about.
For the here-and-now, this semes
ter, Dilwood’s waiting to figure out
what books he really needs for his
junior year at CU-Springs.
“1 don’t want to be spending the
rest of my life paying back book
loans,” he said. "It's a good debt to
get into because you’re getting some
thing back, but if you don’t have to.”
the next three years. The program
is in its second year, and the state
hired 115 teachers this year, up from
59 last year.
The signing bonuses conte from
a pot of $6O million that the state
legislature earmarked for teacher in
centives and teacher quality-im
provement programs. Massachu
“People who hold the purse
strings need to look at enhanc
ing salaries and working condi
tions to attract and retain highly
qualified teachers. ”
-Celia Lose,
spokeswoman for the American
Federation of Teachers
setts is trying to target math, science
and foreign language teachers as
many other areas around Chicago
are but the bonus goes to any new
teacher.
The Chicago public school sys
tem started to recruit teachers inter
nationally in January, after realiz
ing that colleges in the United States
were not producing enough math
and science teachers. By early June,
the city had hired 46 teachers from
places such as Africa, China, and
Some schools in other states will Eastern Europe.
“It seems most times that the fi
nancial part is the part that holds
people back,” said Jonathan
Palumbo, spokesman for the Mas
sachusetts Department of Educa
tion.
pay for a teacher’s moving costs.
“Everybody’s using whatever
tricks they can to get the teachers
in,” said Jerry Lauritsen, assistant
superintendent of curriculum and
personnel who hires teachers for
Bloom Township High School Dis
trict 206. “But the economy has
been so good, there’s just not
enough people to go around for all
the jobs.”
The district, which includes
Bloom High School and Bloom
Trail High School, gave up looking
UNC opens up male-only
residence hall to women
by Sara Yawn
Campus Correspondent
UNC-Chapel Hill
August 24,2000
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (TMS) —For
nearly two centuries, men at the Uni
versity of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill have coveted room assignments
in Old East or Old West, the oldest
dormitories at the nation's first pub
lic university.
Now, with women moving in this
fall the first time in the 207-year
old institution’s history the cam
pus is conflicted by both its break
with tradition and its eagerness to
reflect a progressive environment
that embraces men and women. The
gender integration has also kicked
up controversy about the merits of
single-sex versus coeducational
housing. It’s a debate being watched
carefully by officials on other cam
puses where same-sex housing is
closely linked to tradition. How
UNC handles the integration is
likely to affect other colleges and
universities interested in making
similar changes.
The conflict started a couple of
years ago when two students
David Jemigan, former president of
the campus’ residential housing as
sociation, and Emily Williamson,
the campus' former student body
vice president floated a proposal
to move women into Old East and
Old West, which were opened in
1793 and 1822 respectively. The
suggestion resulted in a flurry of
both supportive and angry letters and
e-mail from students and alumni to
university administrators and stu
dent publications. In the end, school
officials agreed to make the conver
sion.
"I believe that integrating women
continues a more important tradition
of progressive equality at Carolina,”
for a vocational education teacher
after Lauritsen could not find quali
fied candidates. He also had prob
lems finding special education
teachers.
"The kids have to know that it's
a good profession and they can
make an honest living with it,"
Lauritsen said, adding that univer
sities should guide potential teach
ers so they are trained in needed
areas such as math and science.
Hiring teachers from other coun
tries helps Chicago solve an educa
tor shortage the city plans to hire
1,800 and 2,000 new teachers for
the next academic year while
providing other benefits.
“Chicago is preparing itself for
the borderless economy, and its
teachers are going to reflect that,”
said Carlos Ponce, chief human re
source officer for Chicago Public
Schools, adding that the teacher
candidates from abroad also reflect
the city’s immigrant population.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2000
Williamson said. ‘‘The tradition of
admitting only men to live in Old
East and Old West was based on his
toric discrimination against women
by the university."
But critics of the plan, such as
David Sutton, a senior who served
as president of Old West during the
1999-00 school year, said the uni
versity had little choice but to ac
cept the plan or risk looking sexist.
He maintains that there hasn’t been
much of a need to convert the hous
ing from same-sex to coed and sug
gests some women took a relatively
recent interest in living in the two
historic dormitories because they
wanted to make a very public point.
‘‘l don’t think single-sex [housing]
is an evil,” Sutton said, “I think that
it’s a.very important alternative^and
it can be very conducive to.a healthy
lifestyle for people who desire'that
type of dorm life.
“For any single-sex dorm, you can
say, ‘Oh, it’s not fair that either
women or men don’t get to live
there,”’ he continued. ‘‘But by that
logic, we should have no single-sex
dorm anywhere in any college in the
entire country. So I think the logic
applied was pretty ridiculous.”
School officials are gradually
phasing women into the dormitories.
Women will live in only a few por
tions of each building this academic
year. More will be allowed to enter
in time for the 2001-02 school year.
Sutton knows he'll be gone by
then, but said he’s trying to get used
to the idea that women will be mak
ing their homes amid the pine floors
and vaulted ceilings where only men
have been allowed to tread once vis
iting hours are over. .
“It’s almost like a fraternity,” he
said. “But when you take into ac
count the fact that some women truly
do feel oppressed, I think that out
weighs the brotherhood factor by a
little bit,”
At Homewood-Flossmoor High
School, where about 25 of the
school’s 175 teachers retired this
year, officials anticipated the need
for teachers last summer. They
hired the school’s spokesman,
David Thieman, to also work as its
recruitment director. Thieman spent
most of his winter traveling to
teacher recruitment fairs on the East
Coast, posting ads for teacher open
ings on the Internet and placing ads
in national and area publications.
The district also held its own re
cruitment fair, which attracted more
than 325 candidates. The school’s
efforts were successful: nearly all
its teacher openings were filled by
early June.
A fast-track alternative certifica
tion program in Illinois and 39 other
states also has helped add teachers
to the work force. At Governors
State University, an alternative cer
tification program approved by the
Illinois State Board of Education
started this spring with 25 students
who left other careers to become
teachers.
Classes will be held on weekends
from April through August, when
the participants will be assigned for
a year as student teachers in area
schools. If they do well and pass
program requirements, they will be
come certified teachers.
Many participants were involved
parents at their children’s schools or
were teacher’s aides, and some of
them plan to return to those schools
as teachers, a program official said.
“It’s kind of an experiment for the
schools as well as for us,” said
Diane Alexander, dean of the Col
lege of Education at Governors
State. “They felt that, if they could
almost grow their own with
teacher’s aides and dedicated par
ents, there would be a sense of loy
alty and they would stay.”