The Wright Times

Issue date: 2/1/10 Section: News

Media Credit: Vicki Holda One of the big monetary issues campus groups are discussing are textbook prices.

Wright College student trustee Antony Chungath is on a mission. Chungath wants to lower all textbook prices in Wright College's bookstore, and has been working with the Community Colleges of Chicago Board of Trustees, as well as Wright's president and vice president, to accomplish this task.
"This problem is very important to students. When our textbooks start costing as much as our classes, there's a serious problem that needs to be addressed," Chungath said. The average Wright College student spent a total of at least $261.69 on books last fall (see survey results on the next page). This includes money spent for books bought online, at other bookstores, or from friends. Furthermore, it also includes sums of zero due to the fact that many survey-takers were able to obtain all their books from friends. Since the sum of $261.69 was the minimal amount students paid for their books, it's below the price most students would've spent if they had bought all their books at Wright instead.


Costs and Classes

The average amount a student spends on each of arguably the 19 most popular classes at Wright is $113.65. The prices of textbooks of all sections of these courses were calculated: Biology 121, Biology 226, Biology 227, English 100, English 101, English 98, English 102, Reading 99, Reading 125, Math 99, Math 118, Math 143, Math 125, Psychology 201, Sociology 201, Chemistry 121, Chemistry 201, Humanities 123, and Humanities 201. The average cost of a three or four-hour credit class is $276.50, which means that the cost of the books bought from the bookstore is more than 40 percent that of the classes themselves. As a result, 31.5 percent of students turn to other venues for more reasonable prices. Others are restrained by their book voucher rules to buy books nowhere other than the bookstore, or may not have the means to do so.

Different Sides

Wright student John Attia said, "I care a lot because it would be a lot easier to buy the books from the bookstore than on the internet." Wright student Jezabel Esparza echoed his concern on the issue and said, "I usually rent them on Chegg. But if prices would go lower to compete against Chegg, then I would definitely consider changing over to the bookstore." Like many others at Wright, Attia and Esparza found other resources online that eased the cost of their textbooks.

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