2008 Woodie Awards
Textbook rental program may pay off
New service may be offered to Chabot students
Veronica Hernandez
Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: In Focus
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The program is one that requires an innovative approach to raising funds, a structured rental policy, and cooperation from students.
Both Kaser and Kumar deem that the program will significantly reduce the costs of textbooks while maximizing the benefits of its services to a larger volume of students.
The official beginning of the program could start as early as spring 2008.
As the gurus of community college life, Chabot students may be all too familiar with the reality of textbook expenses as the costs of textbooks are often double a student's tuition.
Not surprisingly, many students have sought alternative avenues for purchasing textbooks such as Internet shopping and networking with other students.
How has Cañada's new rental program reduced textbook prices, and has it been successful?
The results of Cañada's experience with the initiative reveal its great success in the preceding years. In the fiscal year of July 2005 through June 2006 alone, the program saved Cañada students a total of $172,954.
If students had paid full price for texts that year, it would have cost $230,605. The Rental program cost students only $57,651.
Compared to the $230,605 spent in the previous year (Bauer, Current Textbook Issues, pg.33).
Kaser explains, "The program allows textbooks to rent for only a quarter of the retail price…a textbook retailing for $100 would be $75 used, and only $25 to rent per semester."
Students will then be given the choice of whether they want to purchase the textbook for the remainder of the cost, by the end of each semester. Otherwise students return textbooks on the date of their final exam.
Initially, Kumar's proposal for a rental program had been intended for Cañada's statistic students, who had to spend additional money on calculators, in addition to the textbooks.
His idea for building a rental library of calculators inevitably extended to the idea of renting-out textbooks to students in the Early Childhood Education program.
By awakening funding sources to the reality of their contributions, which is providing aid to more students, Cañada was eventually awarded a $200,000 grant, given by First Five Grant. This allowed the program to continue for the next several years.
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