Follett’s Orange Bookstore will offer a textbook-rental program for Syracuse University students, called Rent-A-Text, beginning in fall 2010.

“Rent-A-Text is our latest cost-saving program. It was created to make a large-scale impact on affordability. The cost of education, specifically the cost of course materials, has been in the spotlight recently,” said Elio DiStaola, the director of public and campus relations for Follett Higher Education Group.

The bookstore in Marshall Square Mall offers new and used books for student purchase. It will include the rental program in addition to the buyback program that already is in place. The program will allow new and used books to be rented online and in stores in the fall. Beginning in July, students can visit rent-a-text.com and search for the Follett’s Orange Bookstore to begin renting, DiStaola said.
 
Follett’s introduced this program in seven bookstores at other college campuses with a pilot program in fall 2009. In one semester, Rent-A-Text saved students more than $2 million in comparison with new book prices, DiStaola said.

Rent-A-Text is based on a rent, read and return program, he said. This means students would pay a rental fee at the beginning of the semester, which would be cheaper than the cost of purchasing the book. The specific cost varies from book to book. At the end of the semester, students return the book but do not receive any money back, he said.

“Rent-A-Text drives down the course material costs with huge up-front savings, making books more affordable and more accessible to ensure more students have the materials they need for a successful education,” DiStaola said.

The estimated cost for books per year is $1,100, according to Syracuse University’s Financial Aid Portfolio on MySlice. The program offered by Follett’s aims to cut the cost by approximately 50 percent, DiStaola said.

“I imagine it would be less expensive to rent textbooks and easier to give (them) back at the end of the semester,” said Jessica Di Francesco, a freshman advertising major. “I’ll definitely look into it and if it seems worth it, I might rent them instead of buy them.”

The rental list contains most of the titles that are popular nationwide, but not all of the store’s books are available to be rented through this program. Workbooks and loose-leaf books will not be eligible for rent, DiStaola said.

“Each bookstore, including Follett’s Orange Bookstore, will make additional titles available for rent if an instructor agrees to use the book for multiple terms,” DiStaola said.

Di Francesco said with the right plan of attack, Follett’s program can successfully compete against the Syracuse University Bookstore.

“I think Follett’s probably will succeed, especially if they advertise the program well so that students know about it. There are some books that Follett’s doesn’t carry, so people might still go to the SU Bookstore. Overall, I think the program will probably be successful. It sounds like a good program,” she said.

Kathleen Bradley, the textbook and general book division manager of SU Bookstore, said some students may prefer to rent textbooks, but using a buyback program such as the one SU Bookstore offers is cheaper for students.

“If you do the math, the guaranteed buyback that SU offers is a better deal,” Bradley said. “The buyback program is a much better option than the textbook-rental program, but it’s a perception thing.”

The SU Bookstore began offering a rental program a few years ago, and it is working on enhancing it to accommodate students, Bradley said. The program currently offers only one textbook for rental. The biggest challenge, Bradley said, is coordinating with professors to find long-term textbooks that could be offered as rentals.

Online programs, such as Chegg.com, BookRenter.com and CollegeBookRenters.com, already allow students to rent textbooks for a semester. Tina Couch, vice president of public relations for Chegg.com, said she doesn’t believe Follett’s textbook-rental program will be detrimental to Chegg’s business on the SU campus.

“If you think about the textbook market, there are 18.4 million students in college. Per year, they each need about 10 books,” Couch said. “The opportunity for multiple companies to exist in this business is great. Any opportunity that raises awareness for textbook rentals is good for business.”

Published on April 21, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Meghin: medelane@syr.edu | @meghinwithani