Cardinal Points

Issue date: 11/16/07 Section: Opinions

Media Credit: Kelli Catana

Sending 13 college applications (and only getting into Plattsburgh State): $630.

Tuition, fees, room and board for one semester: $6,771.50.

Paying another $600 for textbooks: Ridiculous.

At first it was silly. Now it is a serious issue that needs to be addressed by our elected officials. Textbook companies have taken to updating books on an annual basis. We thank them for their commitment to giving us the best education money can buy - not.

Did someone reinvent thousands of years of mathematics in the last year? Are we students so tuned out that we need to read what happened last week in a history book? Does anyone care that today's college graduates are in debt before they have their first real job?

Apparently not. There are professors at PSUC who work hard to keep book expenses low - many thanks to those teachers. There are others who think nothing of requiring $200 worth of books for one course - to them, we say, you aren't the only person in the world.

But the real issue isn't professors. If a book goes into a new edition, the old editions aren't available and a teacher has little recourse but to use the new book.

What happens at that point? Students get $2 for selling back a book that cost $80 just three months earlier. Then the next class must pay for the "new and improved edition" at $85 - well worth it for the extra two pages we get.

Our legislators, at the state and federal level, must come together and address this issue. They need to pass laws to prevent companies from continuing to profit off college students.

In the last year we have heard about private lending companies giving kick-backs to officials at schools across the country. The efforts, used to help an organization become a school's preferred lender, fortunately were not allowed to take root at PSUC.

But over-priced, over-updated textbooks are being peddled at every school. This isn't the first time we've complained about the issue on these pages either. It's become a complaint every semester. Perhaps at some point it will sink in that something needs to be done.

The SUNY system needs to appoint a panel to examine the issue and offer recommendations that schools and government officials can take to address it. The chancellor should examine the panel's findings and address the issue in a letter to legislators. Things won't happen without your help.

And before that, student associations at this school and others should vote on resolutions asking for this panel. The SUNY Student Assembly should do the same. Student groups need to put pressure on the system and on legislators to take action.

That, or we can pay thousands for textbooks.

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