The growing costs of higher education no doubt contributed to many students? decisions to attend the California State University system. The relatively low tuition, in stark contrast to private universities whose tuition can be upwards of $30,000, and good education provided by universities such as Sac State, are all designed to better serve student needs.

However, the advantages of low tuition are offset when a student is forced to pay more than $500 per semester for books from the Hornet Bookstore.

The prices that the Hornet Bookstore charges are out of tune with those charged by online bookstores such as Amazon.com and local bookstores. Take, for example, the case of three required books from various classes. American Alchemy by Sac State?s own Brian Roberts, costs $19.95 new at the Hornet Bookstore, and Chemistry & Chemical Reactivity by Kotz & Treichel costs $115.65. If purchased online at Amazon.com, these two books cost $127.58 (15.96 and 104.75 respectively)?including shipping. That?s a savings of $8.02 without leaving your computer. Not including shipping, the costs of the books were nearly $15 cheaper online.

Textbooksatprice.com offers books for even less money than the Hornet Bookstore and Amazon.com. On this Web site, American Alchemy was offered for $14.96 and the Kotz book was available for $98.09. Additionally, Empirical Political Analysis is availiable for $76.80 while at both the Bookstore and at Amazon it costs $88. Overall, these three books would cost $240.37 (tax included) at the Hornet Bookstore, but only $189.85 at Textbooksatprice.com, where shipping on this order was free.

It would seem that the Hornet Bookstore is more interested in profits than they are in saving students money.

The State Hornet suggests that the Hornet Bookstore take a hard look at its pricing structure and drop its prices by next semester.

Othewise, students should avoid purchasing their books at the Hornet Bookstore until the CSUS Foundation lowers its profit margins.