The Council of Commonwealth Student Governments (CCSG) passed a resolution at its meeting last weekend urging faculty members to notify the Penn State Bookstore of their textbook requests early to help lower prices.
When faculty notify the bookstore of textbook requests early, the Penn State Bookstore has the opportunity to buy more used editions from students and to stock more discounted books on its shelves.
This semester, the bookstore asked faculty members to request books for the spring semester by Oct. 15.
The store has received 54 percent of book requests, said Tom Bauer, general manager of the Penn State Bookstore.
"We get requests in on the first day of class sometimes," he said. "There's lots of reasons for faculty getting in requests late. Sometimes, faculty members don't know which classes they'll be teaching or haven't reviewed the newest book editions."
Sociology professor Sam Richards said he turns in his textbook requests on time because he teaches the same classes each semester.
"About half of faculty really can't turn in their requests early," he said. "Sometimes, it's hard to plan a course ahead of time, and people are teaching new classes all the time."
CCSG will distribute the resolution to faculty members and will also raise the issue of textbooks during the Dec. 5 meeting of the University Faculty Senate.
Through this resolution, CCSG aims to save students money and raise awareness about an important academic issue, said CCSG President Jerry Livingston.
"Students tend to blame the bookstore for the high prices," he said, "but they try to get more used books on the shelves."
During the academic year, students spend an average of $850 on textbooks, and for the last 20 years, textbook prices have risen at double the rate of inflation, according to a 2005 Government Accountability Office report.
CCSG passed a similar resolution about three years ago, but Livingston said he wasn't certain of its effectiveness.
"I have no way to measure its success in the past," Livingston said. "But we're going to try to do our best for students and lower college costs for them now."
