One of the Student Senate’s goals for this year is to campaign to lower textbook prices, and this semester, the Senate has taken new measures to achieve this goal, one of which was a project to put faces to students paying high textbook prices.

Wednesday, the Senate passed a bill endorsing further Senate research and action into tax-free textbooks, and Thursday marked the last day of a project to compile a book of 300 to 400 photos of students holding up a board showing the highest price they paid for textbooks in any one semester of their college careers.

“Each picture we’re going to take is going to have a page in the book,” Adam Compton, student body treasurer, said.

Compton, a junior in construction engineering and management, who found the idea online, said this book sends a different kind of message to the administration, one that visually shows how much textbooks cost students. He said the Senate will give a copy of the book to the administration, the Board of Governors and the state legislature.

“The Board of Governors has already indicated to us that they are waiting to hear from students,” he said.

The administration also seemed willing to help in the endeavor, Compton said.

“I hope that they will eventually lower the textbook prices and eventually have a rental program like at Appalachian State,” Kristy Craig, a freshman in political science and one of the students who took a photo for the textbook prices book, said.

Craig said she thinks Student Government’s endeavors will be worth it.

“This is a great way to put a face [to the students], to give a voice to the student body — because textbook prices are outrageous,” she said.

John Mickey, chair of the University Affairs Committee in Student Government, said his role included working with administrators and creating a relationship with them so they could work together with Student Government in achieving their goals.

“[The University Affairs Committee] is urging the provost to make policies for getting textbook adoption lists in on time,” he said.

According to Mickey, a sophomore in political science, if 100 percent of instructors submit their lists on time, students will gain $370,000 in buybacks because the bookstores will know which books they need ahead of time and will buy them back from students for more.

Compton, Mickey and Senator Greg Doucette are also working on making textbooks tax-free to save students even more money.

“I know it’s something that the general administration is looking at,” Mickey said.

Compton said several states have a tax exemption on textbooks, and many states have introduced that legislation. According to Compton, the tax-free weekend does not work well for students and that Student Government is working on making textbooks tax-free year-round.

“One thing we’re really trying to push for is tax-free textbooks,” Compton said.

Mickey said because students don’t have much of a say on their tuition and fees, textbook prices would be trying to get a “sway in.”

Paying for textbooks, though, Compton said, is different from paying for tuition and fees in that students are actually going to the bookstore and paying for their books, unlike tuition and fees, which students can pay on a plan.

According to Compton, he does believe students may have an impact on new legislation because when students wanted consistency in their tuition, Stafford said there was a zero percent chance of that, and it happened with the 6.5 percent cap on tuition increase for the next four years.

Both Compton and Mickey agreed that the NCSU Bookstores director was a big help in trying to make sure textbook prices are as low as possible for students.

“Our bookstore operates on less money than any other textbook stores in the UNC system,” Compton said.

Mickey said Student Government’s campaign is one that will affect students state-wide, not just N. C. State students.

“It would be amazing if we could work with the administration and get on the same page,” Mickey said.