In exclusive interviews, the Coop, the College, and the UC discuss book costs.
CRIMSON EDITORIALS, UNDERGRADUATE Council proclamations, and expulsions of students from the Harvard Coop bookstore will not make headlines until class shopping period rolls around again, but a UC proposal to create a College textbook database, and state legislation to create greater transparency in the publishing industry, are proof of the issue's lasting importance.
In the next two months, the UC intends to try once more to gain the College’s cooperation in creating the Harvard College Book Information System (HCBIS). Originally proposed in spring of 2007, HCBIS has undergone nine months of tweaking and negotiations. The system, which would be run by the College and the UC, would facilitate the transmission of information about course books to the Coop, libraries, and external web sites such as CrimsonReading.org, the UC-endorsed on-line price comparison website.
“We think the administration is on board,” said Mike Ragalie ’09, Student Affairs Committee Chair on the UC and former Executive Editor of the Independent. He went on to say that while there were several “long talks” in the spring, the project was “not able to move forward.” However, he believes that the faculty approves of the plan.
“I believe this will be ready for the November meeting of the CUE, ” wrote Associate Dean of Academic Programs Georgene Herschbach in an e-mail, referring to the Committee on Undergraduate Education, which publishes the CUE Guide to classes.
However, even if the College administration were to join in the UC’s efforts, the faculty itself would have to mandate the posting of syllabi with complete book information. “The only way there could be an ‘official requirement’ is if the Faculty itself voted for it,” explained Interim Dean of the College David Pilbeam via e-mail.
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Michael Smith wrote in an e-mail, “I am not aware of any formal activity in the faculty or the Faculty Council targeting this issue.”
Nevertheless, Bass Professor of English Louis Menand, currently on leave, wrote, “I can’t imagine that faculty would have a problem helping students acquire required texts in any way they can.”
As it currently stands, professors must send all information directly to the Coop and the libraries in order for their books to appear on shelves. Furthermore, should they wish to ensure their books are listed on CrimsonReading.org, they must send the same information to website organizers. “[It] is unfortunate that each professor must spend a considerable amount of time... providing course materials information to several bureaucratic bodies,” stated the spring 2007 version of the proposal.
In addition, the proposal claimed that the program could save students approximately $1.5 million annually by permitting comparative shopping using CrimsonReading.org and other web sites. It also stated that, based off of statistics taken from that web site, the UC had determined that the Coop carried books at a 23% markup over online prices.
What's holding back the program, Ragalie explained, is that the administration is “still concerned about how this would affect the Coop.” He stated that this concern is unfounded. “The Coop is going to stay in the book business no matter how many they sell,” he argued. “There’s enough business in the Square that they needn’t be concerned about the Coop.”
Pilbeam verified the assertion: “I don’t think it would be in anyone’s interest to drive the Coop out of the textbook business,” he wrote, pointing out benefits of browsing books before selecting a course. He also stated that the Coop is an “independent corporation that is not affiliated with Harvard” and that does not report to the university in any formal capacity.
CrimsonReading.org co-founder Tom Hadfield ’08 took a more negative outlook on the relationship between the Coop and the College, stating that he has “heard from several sources that the Dean’s office doesn’t want to rock the boat with the Coop.” He added that “it’s a very valuable relationship for both parties.”
“Some [college bookstores] are owned by the university,” remarked Jerry Murphy ’73, President of the Board of Directors of the Coop. “Here it is not. It’s an independent situation.”
Murphy described the “traditional” basis of the relationship. He noted how thirty years ago there were dozens of bookstores in Harvard Square, but now only a few remain — none of which match the ability of the Coop to provide the vast array of books necessary for all of Harvard’s classes. “They look for us to make sure the books are available to students.”
When asked for his reaction to the potential creation of a system such as HCBIS, which would potentially cost the Coop substantially at the bottom line, Murphy warned that the Coop “would have rethink our relationship” in respect to selling books. He also argued that the Coop is under no obligation to release the book listings that it put its resources into collecting.
In response to claims about inflated costs, Murphy said, “We do not say that we’re the lowest priced bookstore around,” but went on to defend the higher costs as the price of convenience, easy returns, and ever-increasing numbers of used books. He also pointed out that the Coop is the only place that is assured to have the proper texts in one location, which is not the case with online retailers, and that it stocks for the smaller courses at the College, not just for the twenty-five largest.
Murphy and Herschbach both also describe the initiatives to encourage greater resale of used books back to the Coop. These included the presence of the Coop in the Science Center this past spring, and efforts by the College to encourage the faculty to choose their next semester’s books before the spring semester ends.
Murphy agreed that book prices are too high. “We want to take care of students who can’t afford it,” describing a student-led initiative to have the Coop cooperate with the Financial Aid Office (FAO) to develop a stipend, paid for by the Coop, to give to students that could not afford their books.
Sally Donahue, head of the FAO, wrote in an e-mail to the Independent that several attempts have been made in the past to provide such a program, but that the College itself feels that its financial aid is sufficient at this point for most cases. She stated that current UC President Ryan Petersen ’08 had pushed an initial effort to bring outside resources, such as the Coop, into such a program, but went on to say that she was aware of no current talks about implementing a program with the FAO.
The source of high prices, all parties agree, goes back to the publishers. The inflation rate of book costs, while lower than that of tuition, has surpassed national general inflation rates for the past several years. Furthermore, Murphy pointed out that the Coop’s markup is small compared to that of the publishers’ wholesale price to the store itself.
Efforts to lower book costs are taking shape in the Massachusetts legislature, where House Bill 1200 aims to prevent the bundling of extra software and workbooks with textbooks, and also to require that publishers make price information available to professors.
Saffron Zomer, State Campus Director of the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MassPIRG), a non-partisan think tank, cited a study of 300 professors by MassPIRG, which found that in about 75% of cases, salesmen for the publishers would not proactively disclose pricing information about texts unless requested by the professor. “Publishers fail to indicate information to faculty. They also bundle unused material,” she said.
When asked how this legislation would be enforced if passed, Zomer described the bill as “leaving that open.” She stated that the fact that the bill would be “codified law” would have a significant effect. “Three years ago [publishers] weren’t talking about this. They didn’t need to. Now they are.” However, the only official mechanism of enforcement appears to be private or public litigation should publishers refuse to comply.
This potential for conflict becomes especially clear in light of textbookfacts.org, a public lobbying site run by the publishing industry. The website states that “publishers already provide the transparency advocated by the bill.” Furthermore, the site pointed to a Zogby research study arguing that the bundled items are of critical importance to about 70% of students. Textbookfacts.org further claimed that this additional infrastructure would only increase the cost of textbooks.
Zomer offered data that contradicts textbookfacts.org. It suggeststhat only a third of faculty even slightly recommended the use of extra supplemental materials, and that many students find them unnecessary.
In respect to the specific issues at Harvard, Zomer suggested that a code of conduct be agreed to between students and faculty, wherein faculty would agree to post their syllabi a few weeks before classes begin. She pointed to the example of the University of California system, where the faculty and administration agreed to abide by similar conditions.
The Coop, as the name implies, is a cooperative organization from which students and community members purchase textbooks, Harvard regalia, and school supplies, among other products. It also owns real estate and other businesses. A mixed board of directors divided between students and faculty from MIT and Harvard help run the organization.
CrimsonReading complies course readings into an online database so that students can compare prices for new and used books from various online retailers, plus the Coop’s price. Many UC members were thrown out of the Coop this fall for collecting ISBN numbers, which are used to identify specific editions of books, from the shelves of the store despite many warnings. While many law professors disputed the Coop’s claim that the numbers were intellectual property, few argued that the Coop could not choose to remove individuals from its store.
`In the next two months, HCBIS is expected to reemerge as a proposal by the UC to the College administrators. The Massachusetts’ House Bill 1200 has no deadline to reach the floor, though it too is expected to be settled soon.