ORU Gives Students Option To Rent Textbooks

Parents across Oklahoma are preparing for the sticker shock of college textbooks. It's a one-time purchase that can saddle college students for as much as $1,000 a year.

We found a local college that's giving students the option to rent rather than buy.

It's that time of year when the Oral Roberts University bookstore comes to life.

"New students moved in on Saturday and returning students move in today, so lots of activity in the bookstore right now," said store manager Debbie Haymaker.

Michelle and Troy Crook are from Kentucky. Their oldest daughter is a freshman at ORU this year. One of their biggest concerns was paying for all of her textbooks.

"We were just like, 'I don't know, we'll see when we get there,' and prayerfully have enough money to cover it," Michelle said.

The Crooks were excited to hear of a pilot program at the ORU bookstore, which allows students to rent instead of buy textbooks.

"It's an exciting program and we want to be able to save them as much money as possible," Haymaker said.

She said renting can save students more than 50 percent of the cost of buying a textbook.

For example, a book on graphic design costs $98.50 new, $74 used, but the rental price is $49.20.

We found another marked $102 new, but that same new book rents for $61.

Haymaker said the student can treat the rental book like any other book, including highlighting passages or taking notes in the margins.

There are some restrictions. Not every book is available for rent.

"There's some that we do not do, such as workbooks - anything that's consumable and access codes, where they go online and access homework materials, or they have to tear pages out, things of that nature - we're not able to rent," Haymaker said.

The Crooks love the idea.

They say it'll help their college budget and make life a little easier for their daughter.

"I know that we just recently cleared out lots of boxes of books from college that we never touched again, so if it's something that they don't need to continue on in whatever they decide to do in life it seems like a great option," Crook said.

ORU is one of 13 campus stores across the country to take part in the pilot program. Students still have the option to buy the book.