A new federal law aimed at helping students access more affordable course materials went into effect in July. Photo Illustration by Megan Gartner.

A new federal law aimed at helping students access more affordable course materials went into effect in July.

The law, which is part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, requires textbook publishers to provide detailed information about the prices of textbooks, the copyright dates of the three previous editions, the revisions of content in the new edition and how the textbook is available in other formats, like online.

“I paid about $700 for textbooks only for this semester,” said Ellie Rivera, junior Elementary Education major. “I am a little bit excited about this law. If the textbooks will be a little bit cheaper, I will be a little bit excited.”

Students usually pay several hundred dollars for their textbooks every year depending on their majors.

“I paid close to $500 for my textbooks. I think the textbooks are higher than what they need to be right now,” said Joel Wilburn, senior secondary education major. “My major is not as expensive as Nursing or Business.”

Professors also think the textbooks are getting expensive.

“Textbooks in general, I think (are) very expensive. Over the years, it has become more and more expensive,” said Alexis Downs, associate professor of Accounting and Information systems.

The effect of the new textbook law on decreasing the price of textbooks is limited.

“I think it will have some sort of effect. But, it won’t be perfect, it won’t drive down the price as much as students would like them to do,” Wilburn said.

Mike McRell, manager of the Memorial Union Bookstore, thinks that the new law is not going to lower the textbook prices immediately.

“Because the publishers have the price set at a certain point, and they are not going to drop the price just because the information is out there,” he said.“The law doesn’t tell them that they can charge only certain amount. The law just said they had to provide the information.”

However, the change in the law has affected the way the campus bookstore does business.

“We had to update our website and be ready for July, because we are the distributor of that information for the university,” McRell said.

Downs said this new law is helpful for faculty who are choosing textbooks to teach from.

“The publishers will provide more information about the different versions of the textbooks, so I will know more about the options,” Downs said.

The quality of the textbook’s content is always a professor’s first concern, she said. At the same time, a lot of professors are aware of the prices of textbooks.

“The problem for tax textbooks is that the government changes the tax law every year, so I will need to change the tax textbook every year,” Downs said. “Price is really important. The textbook I am using right now costs about half as much as the book that I used two years ago.”

The new law is intended to encourage students, faculty, administrators, bookstores and publishers to work together to decrease the price of the college textbook by enhancing transparency.

“The publisher cares about the price most.If it’s pricier, they will get more money,” Rivera said.

McRell also believes that the publishers control the textbook price.

“That’s publisher’s business. They are out there to make money,” he said. “(But) I do think the textbooks are expensive.”

Students will have more options to get their textbooks, after getting the detailed information provided by publishers. They can buy new books, used books, digital books or rent books, either in the bookstores or online when planning their textbook budget.

“I don’t think there is any one way to control the textbook price,” McRell said. “I think students have to have their voice.”

Han Yan/The Bulletin

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The Huge Activities Fair is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. next Wednesday in the Union Square and Pedestrian Mall between Plumb Hall and Morse Complex.

“Basically, it is an opportunity for all the organizations on campus to promote themselves to students,” said Whitney McGinnis, graduate adviser for ASG and RSOs.

The Huge Activities Fair is an annual tradition held at the beginning of the fall semester and is designed to welcome all Emporia State students. It provides opportunities for students to know and participate in various student organizations.

“This year we’ve added another component in it in that we have some community service organizations from the community who will actually be here to promote themselves as well, and to talk to students about how they can help and can do community services for those groups,” McGinnis said.

There are about 14 different community service groups and non-profit organizations from towncoming to campus on both Wednesday and Thursday.

“Community service is being talked about a lot more, so we’re going to do what we can to give students more information, so instead of the students go to the groups, we can bring the groups to students,” McGinnis said.

Ellie Rivera, junior Elementary Education major, just transferred to ESU this semester.

“We don’t have that Activities Fair in my previous school. I am trying to join in UAC. So I can meet new people,” Rivera said.

To date, there are 45 student organizations that have already submitted the registration form for the Fair.

“Totally we have 130 student organizations on campus,” McGinnis said. “We are hoping we can get 75 or 80 organizations who will be there at the Fair.”

Luke Chiddix, President of Sigma Alpha Lambda-Society of Leadership and Honors, went to the Activities Fair last year and the year before.

“I will be hosting a table for Sigma Alpha Lambda-Society of Leadership and Honors,” Chiddix said. “My team is actually going meet tonight and we are going to discuss plans for that on our first meeting. We should have a pretty good time.”

Chiddix believes that the Activities Fair is a good opportunity for students to involve in the campus life.

“If a student really goes out and looks for organizations to join in and he is proactive, I think it’s a great time to find things to get involved with,” Chiddix said.

Han Yan/The Bulletin

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