There are some students at ASU who spent $15 for a $125 textbook this semester.
These students got their textbooks through Chegg, an online textbook-rental company created to combat the prices and environmental impact of traditional university textbooks.
The company began in 2003 when the two founders, fed up with the costs of their books at Iowa State University, decided to come up with their own solution, said Aayush Phumbra, the company's vice president and co-founder.
"I was an international student, and I got very frustrated, especially with paying so much and not being able to return the books," he said. "We wanted to do something revolutionary."
The company started a small-scale book resale Web site at Iowa State in 2003 and expanded into a worldwide rental company in fall 2007.
Using Chegg, students can search for and pay a one-time rental fee for each book. Students return the books to the company when they have finished their semesters.
The fees are often as much as 70 percent lower than the costs of books at university bookstores, Phumbra said.
ASU Bookstores could not be reached for comment by deadline.
Student response has been overwhelmingly positive, he said, with the number of users for the spring semester exceeding projected figures by 300 percent.
The company allows students to return all textbooks, including those that come with supplemental materials, and has partnerships with many publishing houses. This enables Chegg to have an adequate supply of books to meet demand, he said.
They are also working to gain access to books given exclusively to university bookstores, Phumbra added, such as ASU-exclusive versions of textbooks.
Andrew Rigazio, a political science sophomore and Undergraduate Student Government Senate president, said he faced problems in selling books back.
Last semester, the ASU Bookstore only allowed Rigazio to return books for two of his five classes, he said.
This translated into $30 out of the $400 he spent at the beginning of the semester.
Rigazio said he also had to purchase a new edition of his math book, which he called unnecessary.
"The only thing that was different from the previous edition was that they moved eight problems from one chapter to another," he said.
Rigazio said he is supporting new legislation introduced by the Arizona Students' Association to reform the college-textbook market, he said.
If passed, the bill would enact three new requirements: requiring disclosing new-edition changes and prices to faculty and forbidding "bundling" books with other materials.
"Because the textbook market is broken, publishers can take advantage of their power," said Tiffany Troidl, the government affairs director for the Arizona Students' Association.
Troidl said she and her colleagues are working hard to pass their bill, but in the meantime companies like Chegg are a good option.
Currently ASU students do not make up a significant percentage of Chegg's clientele, Phumbra said, but they plan on making a push to change that in the fall.
"[Offering widespread rental services] needs investment, needs planning," he said. "We've gotten a lot of business just from word-of-mouth, and it's been great."
Reach the reporter at: emma.breysse@asu.edu.
