In just a few weeks, the school year will come to an end. And with the end of another semester, flocks of students head to the University and Campus Book Stores to sell back the books that put them in debt at the start of the semester.

That $85 biology book? You’ll be lucky to see $10. All those $15 English novels? A buck here, two bucks there. And that used history text you got a deal on? Don’t even bother bringing it to the buy back line; a new edition comes out next year.

The entire textbook process can put quite a strain on wallets and credit reports of college students.

After purchasing all those school supplies, course packets and textbooks for a half-dozen or so classes, rarely will you hear a student exclaim, “Wow! That was cheap. I feel as though I’ve gotten a deal.”

Textbooks are expensive. That is the nature of the textbook industry. But some other universities use a flat-fee textbook rate policy that alleviates some of the financial problems the purchasing of textbooks can create. At Northwest Missouri State University, for example, such a policy has been in place for much of the school’s history.

In such a system, students are charged a set amount of money based on the number of classes they have. They rent the textbooks and return them at the end of the semester. At Northwest Missouri State, students pay a fee of $2.50 per credit hour for each book rental. For a student taking 12 credits, that would mean a $30 fee. For 18 credits, that would be $45.

And if a student decides they want to keep one of the textbooks, they can pay for it and keep it for themselves.

Iowa State is a much larger university than Northwest Missouri State, thus making it an entirely different situation. The larger the school, the harder it is to get a policy like this off the ground. So it may be that implementing a similar policy at Iowa State would be hard to do.

In order for a policy to be implemented at universities, it would take a large amount of initial capital to get it off the ground. Here at Iowa State, it would take years and years of planning and preparation. Regardless, this is something that should be seriously looked at.

Tuition trends show little chance for lowered rates in upcoming years. Any extra costs for a new college student will put a damper on their financial situations. And textbooks are a very expensive extra cost.

Maybe the university should begin to look at the option of a flat-fee textbook policy. It would drastically help students who are already struggling to afford their college tuition. Imagine paying $40 or $50 instead of the $300 or $400 students pay now.

Those couple of hundred dollars saved each and every semester will add up, and can definitely make all the world of difference for an average college student.

editorialboard: Andrea Hauser, Tim Paluch, Michelle Kann, Charlie Weaver, Omar Tesdell