Student government is working to decrease the amount of money students spend on textbooks starting with the spring semester.

They are creating a visual representation of how much students are set back each semester to present to the administration.

Adam Compton, the Student Senate treasurer, organized a campaign to lower textbook costs.

Student Government plans to present a collection of photographs of students in the form of a book. He said the students will each be holding a sign indicating how much he or she paid for the textbooks following their purchase.

“When you have something you can physically carry [to the administration] and it shows student faces, I think it says a lot more,” Compton, a junior in construction engineering and management, said.

According to Compton, he wants to get between 500 and 1,000 photographs.

“At the end of the day we really just want to send a message that something has to be done,” Compton said.

He added textbook prices are sometimes increased even more than tuition.

“I know students who are just not buying textbooks because they can’t afford them,” he said.

According to Richard Hayes, the director of NCSU Bookstores, the system is a non-profit business and the profits that are generated go toward need-based scholarships.

Hayes said the only increase the bookstore adds to the price is to cover necessary costs such as employee salaries and electricity.

He said the bookstore has saved students $1.5 million over the past six semesters by reducing the profit margin – instead of adding the nationwide average 25 percent, NCSU Bookstores only adds 20 percent to textbook prices.

“This is something we’ve been fighting for a long time – the cost of textbooks,” he said. “We are one of the lowest margin bookstores in the country and we are very proud of that.”

According to Compton, the Board of Governors has already indicated they want to hear more about the issue of textbooks.

“Basically, they said that it’s in our court to do something now,” Compton said. “They’re waiting to hear from us.”

Compton mentioned the success of past campaigns.

He said last year Student Government wrote letters to UNC President Erskine Bowles in regards to tuition guarantees. Compton said the campaign had an effect on the tuition guarantee.

“Look at past campaigns,” he said. “Little steps can be taken to help students out.”

Compton said the last thing he wants to see is another student who can’t afford to go to college “because the price goes up again.”

“Something has to be done,” he said.

Bobby Mills, the executive secretary of Student Government, said he created the N.C. Textbook Exchange, a program that allows students to buy and sell textbooks online without the influence of bookstores.

He said he got the idea when he found out professors who missed their deadline to submit book requests in the fall cost students $400,000.

According to Mills, a sophomore in political science and economics, the Web site that hosts the exchange allows students to search for textbooks or upload a book they are trying to sell.

“That way we won’t handle any money,” Mills said. “Students can all just do it themselves.”

Mills said the reasoning behind the textbook exchange is to save students the money they lose when professors submit their textbook adoptions late.

“You make more money selling it [to me] and I save more money buying it from you,” he said.

According to Hayes, the bookstore has been working with Provost Larry Nielsen to keep the cost of textbooks as low as possible.

The deadline for professors to submit their spring semester adoptions was October 15.

Hayes said as of December 4, 90 percent of textbook adoptions had been received.

“We have worked aggressively at doing that,” he said.