Textbook prices and graduate students

January 10, 2008: The Maryland General Assembly is currently considering various of pieces of legislation aimed at reducing the cost of textbooks in higher education. The Maryland Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs held a briefing today about this important topic. I was a part of the student panel that spoke before the committee and answered questions. I wanted to be sure that the graduate student voice was heard on this particular issue. It is important that key decisionmakers understand that the needs and concerns of graduate students may not be the same as undergraduate students, and that they need to hear directly from us.

My written testimony:

My name is Laura Moore and I am a master's student in entomology at
the University of Maryland College Park. I am also the president of
the 10,000-strong graduate student body. I wanted to be sure that the
committee heard about the textbook issue from the graduate student
perspective.

To give a little background, the 10,000 of us are getting Master's and
PhD's in everything from entomology to public policy to theatre to
business. We do a large amount of the teaching and research that are
the foundation of the University. The University's rankings rely on
bringing in the best people: faculty, staff, and undergraduate and
graduate students.

Currently, grad students pay on average $300-$500/semester for
textbooks. This can go up to $900/semester. In rapidly-changing fields
such as biotechnology, up-to-date textbooks reflecting the latest
research can be quite expensive and are generally not available used.

Our PhD completion (graduation) rate currently hovers around 50%
because many graduate students are simply not able to afford staying
in school. The current minimum stipend for a 9.5 month appointment is
$13,826, and rent can take up nearly 90% of that even in
University-subsidized housing. Also, we are losing good prospective
graduate students because they are able to get better financial
packages elsewhere.

Therefore, it is imperative that we do what we can to lessen the
financial burden, and anything this committee could do to lessen the
costs of textbooks would be helpful.

On behalf of the GSG, let me express my appreciation to the committee
for looking into this issue as it has a tremendous impact on graduate
students.