UCLA students can look forward to their calculus courses for
next year, as three widely used textbooks for the classes are
expected to be less expensive starting fall quarter 2004.
The UCLA Store’s textbook division, the mathematics
department and a prominent publisher are negotiating book prices
for the upcoming school year.
Numbers being discussed show the price of these three books will
be lower than the 2003-2004 prices.
The California Student Public Interest Research Group has been
working on a campaign against increases in book prices since
January, and it believes its persistence is paying off.
Jolene Mitchell, CALPIRG chapter chairwoman at UCLA, said every
time the group has done something big regarding this campaign it
has seen results from Thomson Learning, a textbook publisher.
“We are not going to stop anytime soon. … We will keep
the pressure on since we are seeing results,” she added.
Thomson is the publisher of the mentioned calculus books and was
attacked by CALPIRG in its reports regarding unfair increases in
textbook prices in January.
Jessica Rohm, the vice president of communications for Thomson,
said there could be a variety of reasons behind the price decreases
but emphasized the campaign by CALPIRG is not the reason.
“No business decisions were made because of
CALPIRG’s pressure,” she added.
Demand for new books after their first year of release
decreases, so companies offer discounts to encourage the students
to buy new books as opposed to used books, said Michael Johnson,
president of Thomson’s science and math division.
He added this decision has nothing to do with CALPIRG and is a
normal strategy that works best for the publisher and authors, as
they do not make any money from the sales of used books.
But Professor Ronald Miech, undergraduate vice chairman of the
UCLA Department of Mathematics, believes the students have made a
difference.
He said he has not seen prices go down before and believes the
voices of the students have been heard by publishers.
Before books for each year are selected, sales representatives
visit campuses and offer the book store and departments different
options.
The professors get to pick and choose what they want as far as
ordering new editions or getting bundled editions, Rohm said.
She said the company also has digital books available but that
those books are more expensive because digital rights are an added
expense.
Another alternative available starting the 2004-2005 school year
is the Advantage Series.
The Advantage Series will consist of cost-saving editions of
textbooks that will differ when it comes to the number of colors
and graphics used or will be unbound.
Rohm said it is a misunderstanding that the Advantage Series is
a response to CALPIRG’s requests.
She said the company’s experimentation with the series
started two years before CALPIRG’s campaign and included four
books.
Back in February, she added, the company was hesitant about
making the announcement of the release of the larger series because
it did not want to look like it was giving in to students’
requests.
Rohm acknowledged textbooks are expensive but said the publisher
is not the only one involved in producing the books and that the
textbook problem is a multi-tiered issue.
Rohm said Thomson Learning was originally open to discussion
with CALPIRG.
“Once I saw all the lies, I realized we can’t work
with them,” she added referring to what she calls false
allegations made in the report by CALPIRG.
“We do not negotiate with terrorists,” she
added.
Mitchell said that at this point CALPIRG’s getting credit
for these changes is not as important.
“The biggest thing is that things are changing,” she
added.