Sacramento State students may soon see the end of skyrocketing textbook prices if a state bill putting restrictions on publishing companies is passed.

Democratic Assemblywoman Carol Liu worked with representatives from the California Student Public Interest Research Group to create a bill that would benefit students by lowering book prices on college campuses statewide.

“What (Liu) is hoping to do with the bill is to not only make requests of the publishers, but also bring both sides, that is, publishers and students, together,” Candace Chung, a spokesperson for Liu, said.

A report released on Jan. 29 by CALPIRG titled “Ripoff 101” revealed a number of practices publishers are using to keep textbook prices high for students.

One of these ways is by adding instructional materials, CD-ROMS and workbooks to create what is known as a “bundle”. In many cases students do not have the option of buying a book by itself, and bundles often cost more than twice as much as an unbundled textbook.

As in the past, students strapped for cash this semester are frustrated with the high cost of textbooks.

Lacey Schmid, a Criminal Justice freshman, is one of those students.

“Why do I buy a math book for $106 and only get $10 back and then watch the bookstore sell it back for $73?” she said. “Why do we use hard cover books when soft cover ones are so much cheaper?”

The author of the CALPIRG report and higher education advocate, Merriah Fairchild, is hoping the report will draw state legislators’ attention to rising costs for students.

“With the recent fee increases we are hoping that now is the time that legislators will really start working to help students save money on textbooks,” Fairchild said.

If passed, the textbook bill would also require publishers to report the differences between old and new editions of books. Publishers tend to put new editions on the market frequently. Often the price of a book will dramatically increase for a new edition even though only minor changes have been made.

If a teacher requests the newest edition of a book, it is unlikely that the bookstore will buy back the old edition.

“With the bill, we are trying to encourage publishers to produce supplements for books rather than new editions in order to save students money,” Chung said.

There are teachers on campus who do consider price when assigning materials to a course. Criminal Justice Professor James Hernandez takes advantage of the Internet to save students money.

“I generally try to use pocketbooks and downloadable materials. Unfortunately in some courses you get stuck using a textbook, but most professors I know take price into consideration when they can,” Hernandez said.

Many professors are restricted by department standards, such as Sac State Math Professor Marcus Marsh.

“In lower division classes I typically don’t consider book prices. This is because there is a committee in the Math Department that decides every two or three years which text the department will use for a particular course,” Marsh said.

While some students have accepted the high cost of buying books on campus, others like Antonio Javier, English major, have found alternatives.

“I have friends who have gone to a bookstore in Roseville to find cheaper books. I would choose Borders over the campus bookstore any day,” Javier said. “They’re going to be giving a discount to students Feb. 6-8. Why can’t the school do something like that?”

The campus bookstore suggests buying used books to save money. There are 65,000 used textbooks available for purchase this semester. According to the bookstore website, purchasing used copies will save students up to 25 percent on book costs.

Last semester Associated Students Inc. set up a partnership with BigNerd.com to give Sac State students a chance to sell books to other students and make more money than they would at the bookstore. However, response to the exchange was lacking.

“ASI is going to do more research before deciding whether or not to attempt a book exchange for the spring semester,” ASI President Peter Ucovich said.

The textbook bill is expected to be introduced later this week to the assembly, which reconvened on Feb. 2.