NIU officials are taking steps to improve textbook prices; however, the prospect of a textbook rental system is not in NIU’s direct future.

Other colleges, such as Eastern Illinois University and Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, have implemented a textbook rental system, but NIU has no immediate plans to create its own.

The system at SIUE allows students to pay a general student fee of $104 for students enrolled 15 hours or more. The fee allows students to go to the bookstore and pick up the books required for their classes for the initial fee.

Not included would be reusable items such as notebooks and other supplementary items. Students are able to use the rented textbook for the entire semester and then would have to return them after their finals are complete. If they do not, a fee would be assessed to them.

“The national average of textbook prices is between $329 to $400 per semester, which is a conservative estimate depending on their majors,” said King Lambird, SIUE assistant director of Morris University Center for textbook services.

“We are saving students hundreds of dollars by having this system at our university,” Lambird said. “Many students are looking into a textbook rental system because of the rapid rising prices of textbooks.”

NIU officials have a different opinion on a textbook rental system for NIU.

“A system like that is difficult to implement that will meet everybody’s needs,” said Mitch Kielb, acting director of the Holmes Student Center.

The faculty would have to use the same textbooks for a class for three or four years to make the system work, Kielb said. The professors would be locked into using the same textbooks, and this would not benefit upper level courses, he said.

Officials at NIU have taken notice of the rising concern of textbook prices.

NIU is looking at what it can do for the faculty and the students to address the textbook issue, NIU Vice Provost Earl Seaver said.

A committee has been formed to consider ways to alleviate textbook prices in the near future.

“We are going to charge one of the University Council committees with looking at options for reducing the costs of textbooks and associated materials to students,” said Paul Stoddard, executive secretary of the University Council.

The committee will be represented by students, faculty members and administration, Stoddard said.

The Student Association offers an online book exchange program for students near the end of each semester.

The system allows students to name their own price for the books they want to sell and negotiate a price with the buyer.