On college campuses around the country Tuesday, students and faculty joined together to release State Public Interest Reasearch Group's new report \Ripoff 101: 2nd Edition.""
The report is a follow-up to another document, the CPIRG, California's version of UW-Madison's WisPIRG, released last year. This newly released report extended its research nationwide, interviewing faculty at 59 universities.
According to the state PIRG's Higher Education Project report, students are spending an average of $900 on books each school year, equaling one-fifth of total tuition costs.
Consequently, textbook publishing companies are adding to the already rising cost of higher education, said UW-Madison sophomore Jay Hover, who interned for WisPIRG and was UW-Madison's representative at the release.
According to the study, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index found textbook prices have risen 62 percent since 1994, in comparison to a 14 percent increase in other finished goods.
""Textbook prices are skyrocketing and the main reason is publishers are artificially inflating the prices of textbooks by adding 'bells and whistles' like CD-ROM and workbooks,"" said Lara Dreier, the WPIRG campus coordinator.
The companies are issuing unnecessary new editions with no new educational information in them and bundling extras that only 67 percent of professors said they actually use, reported Ripoff 101.
Companies also overcharge American students specifically, according to Dreier.
""American students on average are paying 20 percent more than our counterparts overseas,"" she said.
Publishing companies are getting away with this because American students are willing to pay the higher prices, according to Hover.
One of the publishers the report targeted was the Thompson Learning Company, which sells approximately one-sixth of the books in the University Book Store, according to manager Steve Scheibel.
""They are American publishers so the books are published here and manufactured here and sold here,"" said Scheibel. ""This is the original market for almost everything they sell. So it's not that they are priced up here, they are priced here based on their market.""
According to Scheibel, the publishers are consistently driven by the marketing goal to make better products and appeal to the purchaser, the faculty member choosing which text to use.
""The current model of academic publishing would not survive if the recommendations of the WisPIRG group [are met],"" Scheibel said.
The report calls for publishing companies to refrain from producing new textbooks unnecessarily and offer unbundled materials instead of only bundled sets.
This report has been released nationwide and PIRG ""is hoping for a positive response from the textbook industry,"" Dreier said. ""Discussing how they may be more willing to change their practices to make them more accommodating to students.""
