Cal Poly to rent textbooks

Cal Poly students will be able to rent a small number of textbooks through El Corral Bookstore this fall, a potentially cheaper and faster option than using online services or regular purchase prices.

The goal of the rental program is to offer books that teachers will assign as textbook requirements for at least three consecutive quarters. Bonnie Murphy, associate vice president of commercial services and executive director of the Cal Poly Corporation, a private non-profit organization that oversees campus businesses such as the bookstore and Campus Dining, said renting textbooks could save students money.

“It’s something that’s an option for students who purchase textbooks,” Murphy said. “Some students may not want to pay as much on the front end, and renting textbooks lowers the cost on the front end because you can purchase textbooks up to about 58 percent lower than if you purchased them right out.”

Murphy warns, however, against jumping into the rental program without considering the needs of the class. Each book can only be rented for one quarter at a time and must be renewed for the rental price each quarter. Murphy said that some of the downsides to renting through a Web site such as chegg.com are the shipping costs, strict return dates and a general policy against markings in the books.

“You have to be pretty disciplined to get it re-entered by a certain time, and if you don’t return it by the date, then you have to end up paying for the textbook,” Murphy said. “And Chegg is very particular about the amount of markings.”

Murphy wants students to consider the financial repercussions of renting a book for multiple quarters versus buying a new textbook outright.

“There are not many quarters where textbooks are needed for multiple terms, but there are some, so those students need to be careful when they go into the rental,” Murphy said. “We don’t want students to spend more money than they have to.”

Saving money on textbooks is always a plus for students, especially when the final price tag for a quarter can be more than $500. Communication studies sophomore Brittni Kiick spent approximately $600 on books this quarter from SLO Textbooks, the new and used bookstore on Foothill Boulevard. While she doesn’t like to shop for her school books online because of the wait, she said renting can be beneficial to students in the long run when it comes to affording the cost of tuitions.

“In reality, I get financial aid so my tuition is free, but living and books make it so I have to take out $7,000 a year, which is a lot when you have to pay it back later,” Kiick said. “I think it’s a really good idea to give students another option.”

The idea of students renting textbooks through the campus bookstore has one professor upset. When a book is bought brand new, the money goes to the publisher, author and editors who worked together to create the book. When a book is bought used, the money stays only with the person or business who is reselling the book. Laura Freberg, professor of psychology and child development and author of “Discovering Biological Psychology,” said what frustrates her the most is seeing her book for sale as used and knowing she won’t receive any payment.

“Considering that my book is probably the result of five years of effort where literally every minute I’m not at school I’m spending on that book, yeah you’d like to have fair compensation for that,” Freberg said. “When I see recycling in the book store where El Corral is seeing compensation for my book and I’m not, it’s frustrating.”

Freberg compared the renting and reselling of textbooks to the relationship between Napster and the popular iPod program, iTunes. Napster emerged in 1999 as a free music-sharing Web site that upset many people in the music industry who weren’t being paid for the distribution of their music. When Freberg’s publisher, Cengage, began offering her textbooks for rent through their site, she was thrilled because all the money would be made available to the companies and the books would be offered at a cheaper price to students.

“It’s like an arms race: We try to get around the problems posed by the book market and of course the book markets are matching us step for step,” Freberg said. “What they do is buy my book for virtually nothing from the students and they warehouse it for about a week or two and turn it around and sell it back to the students. It’s a really screwed up business model that’s hurting students and producers alike.”

SLO Textbooks would not comment on Cal Poly’s rental program, but Kiick hopes the new program will result in the bookstore having to step up to the demands of its customers and compete by offering even lower prices.

“Eventually, they’re going to have to step up to the plate and catch up to El Corral, because obviously they have something to offer that SLO Textbooks doesn’t,” Kiick said. “If they’re smart in their business choices, they’ll end up offering this as well.”

Even with this new option for students, Murphy wants students to make the wisest choice based on their individual classes. She said students who buy new textbooks and sell them back to the bookstore will save money.

“I just want to make sure that we make sure customers or students determine what the best option is,” Murphy said. “Hopefully, they will make a good decision when they do that.”