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With the cost of textbooks proving increasingly prohibitive, the Student Senate at the University of Kansas is hoping to implement a new textbook rental system.

According to the Student PIRGs, “the average student spends about $900 per year on textbooks, which is nearly 20% of tuition and fees at a four year public institution.”

The UK Student Senate recognizes the problem, and wants to focus their program on the most expensive books.

“We want to start working with the bookstore and different classes and departments to develop some kind of plan where students can come in and buy an extremely reduced-priced textbook for a major class — the big lecture classes, the 300-plus classes — and purchase their textbooks at, ideally, about a quarter of the cost,” said Student Senator Michael Wade Smith.

Smith said he hopes the program, which still must be approved by the University Administration, will be implemented for the fall 2010 semester.

“I know in some of the classes we have on campus when you’re doing intro-level courses, you’re paying $180 for a single textbook, $160 for a single textbook,” said Smith.

The university bookstore is also considering a textbook rental plan.

“We’re exploring rentals as well and [Student Senate has] not talked to us about it at this point,” said Steve Rhodes, director of KU Bookstore. “It takes a lot of preparation and you have to have the correct point of sales system and everything but we are working towards that right now.”

Rhodes said publishers have begun leaning toward rentals as a way to cope with the high cost of textbooks.

“The driving force is really the cost to the students, looking for that other option,” Rhodes said.

Other schools, like Eastern Illinois University, already have similar programs in place. Companies not tied to an individual school are also picking up on the trend—a Google search reveals numerous for-profit textbook rental companies.

As tuition costs increase and students struggle to meet financial demands, textbook rental programs may become the norm.

More info from The University Daily Kansan at the University of Kansas
More from the Student PIRGs
More from Eastern Illinois University