Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed Senate Bill 832, which
would have attempted to lower the costs of textbooks by requiring that
publishers disclose price information to professors at the time of sale.

“This bill focuses strictly on textbook publisher policies
and fails to recognize that the affordability of textbooks is a shared
responsibility among publishers, college bookstores and faculty members,” Schwarzenegger said in his veto message.

However, when prices are not revealed during sale
transactions, publishers have the optional tendency to offer more expensive
products, said Emily Rusch, a California Public Interest Research Group
advocate.

The governor instead signed Assembly Bill 1548, which
requires publishers to disclose the price when asked, rather than during sales
meetings.

“A.B. 1548 does nothing to correct the market imbalance,”
Rusch said. “We hope that over time, the
governor rethinks his position and reconsiders similar efforts in the future.”

According to a study conducted by Public Interest Research
Groups, 77 percent of faculty report that publishers rarely or never report the
price of a book during sales transactions.
When professors directly asked for the price during a sales meeting, only
38 percent of publishers would disclose the price.

The average student spends about $900 per year on textbooks,
which equates to nearly 20 percent of tuition and fees at a four-year public
institution, according to a report from the state PIRGs.

Students Take Top Rank in Innovation Contest

A team of UCSD students won first prize and $5,000 in last
weekend’s Qualcomm Innovator Challenge, envisioning a portable device that
allows an individual to watch television while doing homework.

BookPal, designed by David Wong, David Swartz, Andrew Smith
and Aaron Swartz, also enables an individual to take digital notes, read
through several textbooks simultaneously and access the Internet. When turned on its side, BookPal can be used
for typing as if it were a laptop.

The four freshmen called themselves the Voracious Savants,
and were one of 17 teams that presented
designs in the event, which was organized by the Jacobs School of
Engineering’s Corporate Affiliates Program and Qualcomm.

Two of the students are mechanical engineering majors, one
is an electrical engineering major and the fourth student is undeclared.

Second prize and $3,000 was awarded to another
all-freshman team named Athena. The four bioengineering majors designed a
portable electronic device with a screen that rolls up when not in use.

Greek Fire, a team of five seniors, took third prize and
$2,000 with a digital clipboard called MediBoard, used to help doctors and
other health care professionals work together within the same hospital and
across the world.