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Pizza vs. books
Publishers defend soaring textbook prices
.I
By Wendy Navratil
Senior Reporter
College textbook publishers,
deemed the reproachable vil
lains behind the high price tags
on textbooks, argue that those prices
do not translate into big profits for
them.
Two college textbook publishers
credited the high production costs of
effective texts and competition from
the used book market with the prices
students rant and rave over at the start
of each semester.
Textbook prices are not high, they
addea, when compared to other costs
facing the college student and con
sumer.
Lynne Williams, vice president and
director of sales, marketing and fi
nance at St. Martin’s Press in New
York, said textbook prices are not
high in relation to other costs college
students seem more willing to accept.
“In relation to tuition, blue jeans
and pizza, I don’t think textbook prices
are high. And a book lasts an entire
semester — a pizza doesn’t.”
Richard Mastrovich, manager of
customer relations at John Wiley &
Sons in New York, said he didn’t
believe textbook prices were “out of
line with other consumer prices.”
The Consumer Price Index, used
to calculate the annual rate of infla
tion, indicates that college tuition costs
between 1980 and 1990 increased faster
than the cost of school books and
supplies, said Merlin Erickson, re
search associate at the UNL Bureau
of Business Research.
However, increases in both tuition
and the cost of school books and
supplies between 1980 and 1990 far
exceeded the rate of inflation as de
termined by the CPI, he said.
“School books and supplies” is the
category of the CPI that includes
college textbook prices.
Prices for school books and sup
plies increased about 138 percent from
1980 to 1990 while college tuition
increased about 146 percent, accord
ing to estimates Erickson made based
on the CPI. In that same 10-ycar pe
riod, consumer prices increased only
58.6 percent.
Mastrovich and Williams said
changes made in the design and con
tent of textbooks explain price in
creases.
In recent years, Mastrovich said,
changes in teaching methodology have
prompted extensive use of more elabo
rate textbooks by both faculty and
students.
“Today, there is much more leach
ing done in the classroom as opposed
to lecturing,” Mastrovich said. “There’s
much more of a hand-holding ap
proach.”
Mastrovich said instructors are
taking into account different students’
learning habits — they attempt to
present the material to students through
a variety of channels.
Publishers, including Wiley, whose
largest market is math and science
books, have responded by adding
videotapes, si ides, transparencies and
lecture notes to the textbook package
they offer,
“Faculty arc relying more on the
text because the supplements make it
easier for the student to assimilate the
material,” Mastrovich said.
Williams said added color, more
graphs and highlighted boxes, as well
as computer software, study guides
and solutions manuals serve to make
learning outside the classroom easier
for students.
An effect is higher production costs
for the publisher — costs that arc
passed to students in the form of higher
text prices, she said.
Despite price increases, profit for
publishers — including St. Martin’s,
whose core publications are in Eng
lish and literature — has declined
over the years, Williams said, par
tially J>ecause of competition from
the used book market.
“The more used books out there,
the fewer books we sell. We have to
spread our costs over fewer books —
that raises the prices.”
Mastrovich said that although prices
would have increased even without
the development of the used book
market, books would be “considera
bly less expensive today” if used bodes
were not competing for the market.
“In the last 20 years, the lifetime
sales of any book has diminished by a
minimum of 40 percent. You can no
longer take your costs and average
them over the same percentage of
units.”
INCREASES IN TEXTBOOK PRICES
1980
English Anthology- $12.95
Sociology- $15.95
Western Civ.- $16.95
Chemistry- $1
Accounting- $17.95
Calculus- $23.95
AVERAGE CO* IT $16.63
1985
English Anthology- $21.95
Sociology- $25.00
Western Civ.- $25.95
Chemistry- $36.95
Accounting- $34.95
Calculus- $39.95
RAGE COST $28.ZZ.
^990 ^ I
English Anthology- $31.95 I
Sociology- $26.25
Western Civ.- $41.87
Chemistry- $56.25
Accounting- $48.35
Calculus- $60.00
AVERAGE COST $41.06 |
Source: Nebraska Book Co.
SCOTT MAURER/DAILY NEBRASKAN
' *+ ^
Mastrovich and Williams noted increase profits for publishers.
xher factors that indirectly increase --
he price of textbooks, yet do not See BOOKS on 6
Communist Party suspended
by Supreme Soviet. Page 2.
Not just your average trees.
Page 6.
Season opener for volley-,
ball approaches. Page 8.
INDEX
Wire 2
Opinion 4
Sports 8
A&E ' 11
Classifieds 14
Grant allows GLS A to make improvements
By Roger Price
Staff Reporter
A grant has allowed the UNL
Gay/Lesbian Student Associa
tion to concentrate more on
providing services and less on raising
money, one member said.
Kendal Garrison, an undeclared
junior, said a $5,470 grant from the
Chicago Resource Center has enabled
members to devote more time to group
efforts.
The grant will make up more than
two-thirds of GLS A’s S8,920 budget.
The grant will be used to finance a
part-time staff member for the asso
ciation’s resource center at 342 Ne
braska Union, to buy more library
materials for the center and to help
cover administrative costs.
This is the second grant GLSA has
received from the Chicago Resource
Center. Last year, it received $4,590
and used the money for similar pur
poses.
“We don’t have to concentrate all
our efforts on fund raising anymore
just to gel by,” Garrison said.
Tammy Taylor, a senior art major
and GLSA representative, said that
with the money received last year
from the foundation, GLS A was able
to expand its library by 50 volumes
and maintain subscriptions to three
periodicals.
“Before, the subscriptions would
often run out until we had the money
to get them again,” Garrison said.
Taylor said the grant also has al
lowed the association to form a speak
ers bureau on gay and lesbian issues.
GLSA also gets funding through
T-shirt, button and flower sales, do
nations, and a dance. The association
nlso has applied for grants from the
funds allocation committee and the
Woods Charitable Foundation.
The Chicago Resource Center, a
well-known foundation within the gay
and lesbian community, distributed
grants in excess of $350,000 in 1990,
Taylor said.
Other organizations that received
grants through the resource center in
1990 included the American Civil
Liberties Union, National Lesbian Task
Conference, National Gay and Les
bian Task Force, Lambda Legal De
fense Fund and the American Indian
Gay and Lesbian Group.
Grants also were given to local
gay and lesbian organizations across
the country.
-- —*
Righty tighty, lefty loosey
Tom Marquez, an employee of the Mighty BlueGrass Shows, on Thursday prepares “The Spider" for today’s
opening of the Nebraska State Fair.
i
New program
offers options
for transfers
Agriculture college’s plan
adds up to easier transition
By Heather Heinisch
Staff Reporter_
Anew program at the College of Agricul
tural Sciences and Natural Resources
will make it easier for community col
lege students to earn a university degree.
The 2 Flus 2 program is a joint credit-hour
plan that allows community_
college students to transfer
up to 66 credit hours toward
a bachelor’s degree in agri
cultural science.
The program allows stu
dents to cam an associate’s
degree at one of 10 Nebraska
community and state colleges.
Students would then be able_
to transfer to the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln and enter any of 22 agfi
See TRANSFER on 6