On the other hand, it’s not as though American teens live in barrels as Mark Twain once suggested. Proms, complete with tuxes, gowns and limos, would probably fit right in during the salad days of Europe’s nobility. (Save for the limos, of course). There’s even a show on MTV, the standard-bearer of culture, called “My Super Sweet 16,” and it seems to cut across different groups and regions. For the record, I think it falls somewhere around “Jon and Kate Plus 8” on my viewing list.
There are all sorts of reasons that increasing numbers — though by no means anywhere near all — of Princetonians have attended a lavish Bar Mitzvah or a debutante extravaganza. Our families and we personally aren’t above consuming conspicuously, especially when disposable income (and of course increasing levels of debt) have risen and spread. On campus, we manage to spend considerable sums on certain things like eating club membership.
In light of all that, it’s curious, and maybe even a little reassuring, how frustrating it is to spend exorbitant amounts of money on textbooks each semester. Looking at it just on the numbers, even spending $500 on textbooks pales next to the two extra zeros in $50,000. Now, next to the tens of thousands of dollars in tuition, room, board and other expenditures, a few hundred dollars on textbooks might seem insignificant. At the same time, buying books at close to list price from Labyrinth is no party.
The new textbook exchange bears that out. Students have sought a more organized forum in which to save a few bucks on used textbooks and make a few bucks reselling their own.
To be clear, Labyrinth isn’t the worst bookstore I’ve been in. In fact, it boasts a nice selection, not to mention a discount for student members. And I can’t fault them for charging prices reasonably close to list. Welcome to America.
The flip side is online vendors. After all, there are plenty of sites that offer books at substantially discounted prices. That’s where it begins to feel frustrating as courses gear up in September. The online vendors parlay their business models into lower prices for consumers. Problem is, Princeton’s current September schedule doesn’t always leave you enough business days to get the books online.
Princeton might consider asking its professors to provide finalized book lists with ISBNs for their courses a week or two before the start of classes. The lists should not only be available in Labyrinth, but also online on the University’s or Labyrinth’s website.
What’s more, add/drop didn’t open on SCORE until the day classes started this year. Students who want to make changes to their roster — not shopping courses, but actual course changes for whatever reason — can’t be sure they’ll get into the class until after that comfortable window of five or so business days has elapsed. It might help to move the start (just the start, not the end) of the add/drop window to some earlier date.
Then there’s a great deal wrong with the textbook market in general. Our University might consider using its weight in the college world to foster innovations that could bring down the cost of college along the lines of its decision to tackle what it saw as income discrepancies in the early decision process, a step few other schools took.
Textbooks continue to hurt students’ wallets. Libraries like Lewis Library do try to have, in the words of Patricia Gaspari-Bridges, the head of science and technology libraries, “one copy on reserve for every 15-20 students enrolled in [a] class,” as well as electronic copies when possible. Both steps help, though she acknowledges this electronic project is not widespread yet. The University has also started a test of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. All of these digital options could bring prices down in the future by changing the way textbook publishers and consumers do business, and this University and others should pursue it for their students’ sake.
Until then, the University can have an immediate impact. For those students who wish to continue to have the convenience of Labyrinth — and there are plenty — these changes won’t hurt. All this does is open the dam of the free market. Plus, we can all be smarter consumers of at least one product, even if you won’t be seeing “My Super Textbook Deal” on TV anytime soon.
Brian Lipshutz is a sophomore from Lafayette Hill, Pa. He can be reached at lipshutz@princeton.edu.
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