For Central Michigan University senior majoring in psychology, Olivia Van Avery, this semester's caseload of books required in terms of prices is "slightly too much," compared to earlier semesters, she said.

For her classes right now, Van Avery said that her textbooks, bought from the CMU Bookstore, range from $20 at the lowest to $150 at the highest.

Kimberly Yates, the assistant manager of Central Michigan University’s Bookstore, said the bookstore is trying to keep book prices as affordable as possible.

“We are a retail business, and so we need to make a profit, but it all goes back into the university,” Yates said. “I’ve been in this business so long, that’s what we were here to support the students and keep their costs down as low as possible.

“Shipping costs are outrageous, and that’s half the battle sometimes, but keeping costs down ... is one of our main priorities for everything we do."

The prices of textbooks are set by the publishers of the books, and then CMU decides what the margin is, said Yates.

"If the publisher has a list price and they give us a discount, then we use that list price,” Yates said.

The list price is the suggested retail price of a book set by a publisher.

“If the publisher gives us a net price with no discount, then we decide what to mark the book at from that price, she said. “It just depends on the kind of discount we get originally.”

Van Avery said her digital materials were on the lower end in terms of prices, while the physical textbooks were high.

"It's a shame because I like physical books," she said.

Yates said that in the last few years, from the Covid-19 pandemic and before, textbook prices have been increasing. An increase she attributed partially to publishers.

“Some publishers increase theirs more than others," Yates said. "Sometimes they do them twice a year. Some are just once a year. But physical books go up every year.”

One of the ways CMU and the Bookstore have been driving down costs while increasing availability is by going to digital copies and textbooks.

Yates said that over 50% of class materials on campus have gone digital. She cited the biology and math departments specifically. They use inclusive access materials or open education resources in place of physical materials, which are available day one for students, typically at a lower cost.

“That’s what’s nice about the digital (resources). It’s probably 50% affordability and 50% percent availability,” Yates said.

Still, the price of digital materials is also rising, with publishers doing an increase of once a year, she said.

"They're not as drastic of increases," Yates said. "So, it's more pennies instead of dollars, but yeah, digital is still going up."

Even still, she said, the choice of physical or digital is up to the individual faculty in charge of the class.

“It’s (the) individual instructor deciding what to use and what they’re comfortable using,” Yates said. “I don’t see us ever going 100% digital, just because there (are) still people that like to ... require books. It’s really just professor preference for the most part for (the) main campus.”

Rayan Gharzeddine, a freshman and biotechnology major, said that so far during this semester, the only thing he has to pay for in terms of material from the textbook is a $20 lab manual. He said all other classes are either in the digital inclusive access program or require no textbooks.

Yates said the bookstore is aware that some students either find required materials online for free or at a lower price elsewhere.

For example, Student Van Avery said she has searched for books to get lower prices in past semesters, like on Amazon. Although she said the price difference wasn't "significant," it was still less than the prices at the bookstore.