Custom textbooks aim to decrease cost to students, while CDs and online content seek to improve the learning experience, but many of these add-ons and custom books cost students more money in the long run.
Students in Microbiology 352L were issued a custom textbook for UNM, published by McGraw-Hill. The textbook was purposely missing chapters that were supposedly not needed for the class to make it cheaper for students. However, the professor for the class is having students print out the missing chapters.
Biology major Alyssa Williams said it’s frustrating that a book that she paid almost $100 for isn’t complete.
“Already in the second lab we have had to print out four chapters that were missing,” she said. “Frequently we have to print our own chapters and bring them to class because the lab book does not contain them.”
Microbiology Lab Manual for University of New Mexico-Albuquerque costs $93.50 at the UNM Bookstore and is missing chapters five, eight, 10, 11, 12 and 52.
Larry Barton, the professor for the microbiology class, said the missing pages are available to students online for free, they just need to print them out themselves.
The non-custom edition available through the publisher’s website costs $117.
“This last week it was a student who pointed it out (the chapters missing) right before we were assigned to read them,” Williams said.
“They (professors) are not usually apologetic, they just emphasize that it’s the student’s responsibility to go online and check.”
UNM Bookstores Director Melanie Sparks said the Bookstore was unaware the chapters were missing.
“That was the first we have heard of it, to be truthful,” she said. “We put a call into Professor Barton to find out what the situation was, and we did hear from him that apparently 30 pages are missing, and it’s available on their biology home page website.”
Sparks said the Bookstore simply orders the books professors ask them to order.
UNM student Anthony Martinez said his Chemistry 121 class requires both a book and an access code for an online program called Mastering Chemistry. Martinez said he hoped to buy the book used, but the required access code made it more expensive to buy the book and the code separately, so he chose to buy them together from the bookstore for $232.
“I know that some of these programs are really helpful, and we use the Mastering Chemistry for homework, but I can’t help feeling like it’s way too expensive,” he said. “I was almost not buying it, because I had a Spanish class where we had to get an online access code and we never used it. Professors need to keep in mind that students have to pay for this stuff.”
The Bookstore offers an electronic copy of the book and an access code for $126.75, in an effort to decrease the cost for students. Students can print the ebook, or view it on laptops or other electronic devices.
While some students may complain about the added cost of course materials other than the textbook, student Rachel Anaya said a music appreciation class she took her freshman year featured a CD which helped her in her studies.
“I think it’s indispensable,” she said. “I really do. It helps so much with studying and people are complaining about having to buy this extras stuff when in some cases it’s absolutely necessary, or at the very least it makes it easier. How can you study music without being able to hear it?”
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