Along with the rising costs of utilities and everyday items like food, textbook prices are soaring. But Columbia’s administration, the Student Government Association and an Illinois senator are proposing ways to provide some relief.

Columbia’s contract with its current textbook provider is up and the administration has jumpstarted the formation of a bookstore advisory committee. Students will work with the administration to research other booksellers for the most affordable prices.

Kari Sommers, assistant dean of Student Life, said it’s great that the committee has invited student participation.

“It’s an effort to make sure we, as an institution, in partnership with the bookstore are doing everything we can to make sure faculty get their requests in on time so that we can keep the price of books down,” Sommers said.

SGA president Jessica Valerio said she thinks the committee is a positive thing because she has done some research and found there are options available that are less expensive than Columbia’s current bookstore contract.

“Barnes and Noble is being discussed because DePaul [University] uses them and is happy with them,” Valerio said.

In an effort to make textbook costs more manageable, Dick Durbin (D.-Ill.) authored the Textbook Affordability Act, which would go into effect in 2010.

“The average college student spends nearly $900 on textbooks every year and the costs of textbooks are climbing at four times the rate of inflation,” Durbin said in July when announcing the bill in Washington, D.C.

The Textbook Affordability Act would require colleges to provide students with information in advance on textbook prices for each course. Faculty would also have full textbook pricing information when making decisions for what books to require under the bill.

Publishers would be required to include information about textbook prices, history of revisions and lower-priced alternatives when marketing a book to faculty.

SGA vice president of Finance, Kelli Van Antwerp, said SGA is currently working with a coalition of other colleges in Chicago-including DePaul University, Illinois Institute of Technology and University of Chicago-to come up with a solution to the textbook cost problem. In 2007, the coalition worked together to submit an amendment to the Illinois legislature to include college students in the groups Metra offers discount rates to.

In the meantime, Van Antwerp said students should try to use books in the library and make photocopies of pages they need instead of buying the book.

“Students should ask around campus, too,” Van Antwerp said. “A friend of a friend might have the book and students can share books or borrow from each other.”

Louise Love, vice president of Academic Affairs, said students should try to buy used books and shop around for the best prices.

“I would encourage faculty not to order books that don’t get used,” Love said. “Be mindful and thoughtful and make sure the students have a strong reason for buying the books.”

Valerio recommended the administration limit the number of textbooks a class can require to two books.

“It would urge departments and faculty to reevaluate what texts they are requiring for their classes and how vital the books are to the course structure,” Valerio said.

Valerio said another option for faculty is to make sure there are books on reserve in the library and to try to encourage the library to loosen their policy about letting students take the books out of the library.

SGA is also researching a textbook renting system, but Valerio said it is a complicated process that would take a while to implement the program at Columbia.

“Tons of other schools have done it, and we have that information in our files about how to do it,” Valerio said.