It’s bad for business…

College students spend a small fortune on text books. - I can say that I am an expert on this topic, from the consumer end of things. - Sometimes, a single text book can cost well over a hundred dollars. And the text book is absolutely necessary for the course material. The text book costs per semester usually total into the thousands of dollars. This is an expense that is an expected shock to every student that has to have those needed text books.

However, in this age of technology where every student has access to a desktop or notebook computer, it does not have to be this way. Compact discs with the text material can be sold at a fraction of the costs. Updates to the text book could be put online for downloading. Revisions and/or corrections could be done online with ease. There would be no waiting until the school bookstore receives delivery. There are countless other benefits to such a CD/online system. However, it is unlikely to happen.

It simply does not generate enough profit to distribute text material in this manner.

I will quote a dean of a university faculty: “It’s a great idea, Catherine, but it’s not going to happen. It’s bad for business…”.

Catherine