By Veronica Longo

With job loss and unemployment at an all-time high for many students midway through the year of 2020, many can no longer afford the cost of textbooks. While there are alternatives to purchasing textbooks now, Lehman students still deal with income loss and struggle to make ends meet. Publishing companies, such as the Association of American Publishers, are trying to assist students with the cost of textbooks by offering stipends and lower cost textbooks with their Inclusive Access Program. Ultimately the responsibility of accepting this assistance from the publisher is up to the colleges. It brings into question if students are paying a fair price for textbooks.

To better understand, we must look at the history and legislation behind textbook affordability. On July 1, 2010, the first important legislation to make textbooks affordable went into effect. According to govinfo.gov, the HEO Act states, “The purpose of this section is to ensure that students have access to affordable course materials by decreasing costs to students and… encourage all of the involved parties, including faculty, students, administrators, institutions of higher education, bookstores, distributors, and publishers, to work together to identify ways to decrease the cost of college textbooks.”

Is it fair to put all of this pressure on our professors, should publishers’ shoulder some of the responsibility? Publishers speak about how their companies are cutting costs to make textbooks affordable to us. We spoke to a representative, Laura Knox, from textbook publishing company, W.W. Norton. She detailed how students can check if their college participates in W.W. Norton’s Inclusive Access Program. Laura explained the process: “I recommend inquiring through the bookstore, as they are directly involved with the Inclusive Access Program and help facilitate it.” This highlights that while the publishers are promoting these programs, the act of informing the students is our college’s responsibility.

Laura went on to state that individual students whose institutions are not part of the program will not be able to apply for this program. She laments, “Unfortunately not, because through Inclusive Access course materials are delivered directly through the campus LMS (Learning Management System) on the first day of class, and there are operational pieces that have to be in place for it to run. If a student is interested in the program, they should let their instructor and/or bookstore manager know.” Students can also raise the question with their major department to see if they can participate in Inclusive Access programs. The problem is many students aren’t aware programs like this exist.

But could there be students who are denied from the Inclusive Access Program? Laura detailed how to avoid this issue. She states, “When an Inclusive Access Program is offered in a given course, each and every student in that course is eligible to participate, unless they choose to purchase materials another way. That’s one of the benefits of Inclusive Access - that all students have access to the required materials on day one.”

This is just the beginning for these all-inclusive programs. She expects company expansion, “Programs like Inclusive Access have contributed to the steep decline in textbook costs over the past few years, and we anticipate that the program will only continue to grow. Especially given the shift to online learning, Inclusive Access has been a popular all-digital option for many students because they receive the required materials on the first day of class, at an affordable cost.”

Students at Lehman have found their own way around this cost issue. John-Luc Thomas, a CIS major, detailed their method of dealing with the cost of textbooks by using online free PDFs. He passed that responsibility to the faculty, stating, “Teachers should have free pdf options.” Considering that some professors add their own textbooks as a required text, the textbook cost-free option is gaining popularity within colleges across the United States.

In a report that Collegeboard.org released about the 2019-2020 school year, “The Average student spending on college textbooks and digital course materials has steadily declined in recent years.” It is important to keep in mind several things that may have skewed the results. Colleges such as Lehman do offer classes with the attribute of a “Zero Textbook Cost.” Many students have turned to websites that offer free downloads of textbooks to offset the cost.

Lehman students now more than ever need financial assistance in order to complete their college courses and obtain their degrees. The Higher Education Opportunity Act was passed to help students and colleges gain better footing over the financial crisis that many students face.

However, during the pandemic this crisis has steadily gotten worse. Students are opting out of college in order to go back to work and help support their families. Many Lehman students now have limited funds. It is clear, we as students need to voice our concerns in order to continue to decrease textbook costs.