Students tell of the pain of budget cuts

Recognizing that those who make decisions about public higher education budgets are insulated from those who are affected, students at North Carolina's public institutions have decided to make the effects plain. Through their student government organization, they have collected testimony from more than 800 students, parents and alumni of the UNC system and published it in The Personal Stories Project: Faces, Not Numbers.

The project came about after the University of North Carolina Association of Student Governments (ASG) learned that North Carolina ranked first in the nation in the percentage increase of resident undergraduate tuition and fees from 1999-2003. The increases over four years totaled 84 percent at the flagship universities and 52 percent at the comprehensives. At the same time, the state's economic fortunes declined precipitously: median household income fell 4.4 percent and those living in poverty increased from 12.5 percent to 13.1 percent. Because of progressive budget cuts, higher ed appropriations have declined from 17.4 percent of the state budget in the mid-1980s to 12 percent today.

Those are the numbers, which The Personal Stories Projects briefly lays out in the beginning of a 402-page book. What follows is page after page of poignant, inspiring, heartbreaking, courageous testimony as to the value students place on their studies, how hard they are working to pursue their dreams, and the evidence of decline in quality that has appeared before their eyes in the past few years: professors gone, class sizes swollen, courses unavailable, lengthening time to degree, and increasing out-of-pocket expenses. Students describe the sacrifice of single-parent households, families struck by layoffs and extended periods of unemployment, evaporating aid packages and the need to hold multiple jobs at the expense of academic success.

One story begins: "For every time that I have shaken hands with someone throughout the last eight months and recited the phrase, 'My name is Rachel Johnson and I am the Student Body President at Appalachian State University,' there have been over 20 times that I was forced to recite a different phrase: 'May I take your order, please?'"

These stories make the case for renewed state support for public education. The project is a model for effective legislative activism on the part of students. To see the book, go to www.personalstories.org.

College books cost too much

College students and their families are getting ripped off by textbook publishers, says a new report by the California Student Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG). It's insult added to injury for students already burdened by the soaring costs of tuition and fees, says the activist group.

CALPIRG's study shows that University of California students will spend an average of $898 on textbooks for two semesters during the 2003-04 academic year, a 24 percent increase since 1996-97.

For its report, "Ripoff 101: How the Current Practices of the Textbook Industry Drive Up the Cost of College Textbooks," CALPIRG worked with the Oregon PIRG to survey the textbooks most widely assigned last fall at 10 public colleges and universities in the two states. The organizations also interviewed 156 faculty and 521 students.

How are publishers gouging students? "Ripoff 101" counts the ways:

• Hiking the price of books. According to the National Association of College Stores, wholesale prices of college textbooks have gone up 41 percent since 1998, while nonacademic book prices have increased by only 20 percent.

• Adding bells and whistles. Half of all textbooks now come "bundled," says CALPIRG, or shrink-wrapped with extras like CD-ROMs and workbooks. Buying the book separately is not an option, yet most faculty don't use the extra features.

• Putting out "new" editions with minimal changes. A new edition can render older versions obsolete and divert students from buying used copies at an average of 58 percent less. Almost 60 percent of students who searched for a used book last fall couldn't find one.

• Charging U.S. students more. Thomson Learning's Calculus: Early Transcendentals, 2003 Edition, sells for $130 in the United States, $97 in Canada and $65 in Britain.

Faculty are not happy with this situation. Of faculty surveyed, 76 percent believe that new editions were justified only half of the time or less, with 40 percent of that group saying they were rarely or never justified.

More students spending more for books does not necessarily mean more for the professors who wrote them.

"Author royalties depend on three parameters: royalty rate, sale price and unit sales," says Michael Lennie, a literary agent and authors' attorney, according to the Text and Academic Authors Association.

Therefore, reducing textbook prices would not have to hurt the academic community. "If there is a reduction in royalty rate, a corresponding reduction in sales price but an offsetting increase in sales, the cumulative royalties will remain the same."

Professors are taking steps to curb skyrocketing book prices. Eighty-seven percent of faculty surveyed support including new information in a supplement instead of producing a new textbook.

Other cost-reducing ideas from CALPIRG include online book swaps and the production of online textbooks.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is proposing legislation that would provide a $1,000 tax credit to cover the cost of college textbooks.

To see the report, go to www.calpirg.org.