A change to the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 requires colleges nationwide to provide the price of textbooks and any other materials required for a class at the time of registration. The act intends to help students manage the rising cost of textbooks by requiring college to disclose the course materials earlier during the registration process.

Although the mandate required colleges to adopt the system as of July 1, 2010, Whitman’s bookstore has not yet complied with this law.

Despite Whitman’s slow response to the law, the bookstore hopes to have a point-of-sale system that also includes a web-based system to inform students which books will be required for classes sometime in the future. According to the Director of the Bookstore Douglas Carlsen, Whitman hopes to integrate the web-based system in the future, but that it would require the bookstore to gain the finances to maintain it. Consequently, the bookstore has had difficulty making the change.

Carlsen hopes to find an easier and more efficient way of informing students, but until the bookstore can manage the finances to maintain a web-based system, Carlsen doesn’t expect to be able to provide information for students at the time of registration in the near future.

“[The web-based system] is not an easy fix, so we’re trying to find a way to make this easier, without a great deal of additional cost,” he said. “It tends to fall to a lower level of priority.”

According to a 2005 U.S. Government Accountability Office report to Congress, full-time college students at four-year universities spent on average 898 dollars on textbooks per year–a number that continues to rise. For 2010-11, for instance, Whitman estimates the cost of textbooks and supplies as 1400 dollars. Under the HEOA, students must be informed of their textbooks and their bookstore’s price at the time of registration, allowing them to shop around for the best available price. Additionally, students are only able to take advantage of free shipping from websites such as Amazon.com when they are able to wait up to two weeks for textbooks to arrive, something they cannot do if they don’t know what books they need until they arrive on campus.

Junior Liz Reetz, co-president of the First Generation Working Class student group, is frustrated that the bookstore has made little progress towards posting course materials during registration.

“It’s about having options, and I don’t think there’s an excuse not to carry it out,” she said.

Reetz noted that she has found textbooks online for much cheaper than in the bookstore.

“My [astronomy] book was 20 dollars online, and it was over 100 dollars in the bookstore,” she said.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Allison Calhoun also stressed the need for Whitman to implement an information system soon.

“I think it would be helpful if the bookstore could introduce the system sooner. It doesn’t make sense to me,” she said.

Calhoun also said that the difficulty in introducing an information system for students also lies with professors.

“It can be very very difficult to tell what books will be needed for a class at registration, often we don’t have our syllabi done by that time,” she said.

Reetz hopes that faculty can make a small sacrifice for students to be able to afford textbooks.

“I understand professors are busy and have a lot to do, but it’s important,” she said.

Other students are also frustrated at professors’ and the bookstore’s delay in providing information to students.

“I don’t think it’s that difficult; I’d understand if it was hard to do, but it’s not,” said first-year Ben Menzies. “Obviously professors know what books they’ll use in their class, there’s no reason for them not to make that information available.”

Although the deadline for professors to inform the bookstore of the textbooks they will use next semester was Tuesday, Nov. 16, required textbooks for classes will not be publicly posted until right before spring semester.

Carlsen isn’t certain when the bookstore will have textbook listings at the time of registration as required, but said students can call or e-mail the bookstore to find out.

“We invite students to call or e-mail us and we’ll provide information,” he said.

Registrar Ron Urban remains hopeful for the bookstore’s future information program to develop.

“I think the idea is a good one,” he said. “Implementation difficulties that weren’t anticipated will always come up, but if we wait a little longer, it will be perfected.”