Associated Students of Madison representatives believe they may have finally found a way to lower the cost of textbooks for University of Wisconsin students.

Next semester, ASM plans to launch a pilot textbook-rental program in two or three classes on the UW campus, which could potentially save many students hundreds of dollars.

Awarded over $80,000 in funding by the Student Services Finance Committee Jan. 26, the pilot program would require students to pay only a "small rental fee" to use a textbook in a given semester, as opposed to the total price of the book.

Though the pilot program will only be in place for a small number of courses next semester, ASM representatives said they hope to see the program expand to more classes over the coming years.

"The biggest challenge had been to get the money," ASM Academic Affairs Chair Stephanie Biese, who is heading the textbook-rental program, said. "Now that we have it secure, we need to figure out the business logistics, and the policy and procedures."

According to Biese, as the program is currently set up, ASM would use approximately $70,000 of its allocated funding to buy the textbooks used in the courses participating in the program.

Students would then pay a deposit on the book equal to its price and — at the end of the semester — would return it for a full refund, minus a "small rental fee."

The fee would go toward paying off the cost of the book over the course of "four to six" semesters.

It is that piece, however, that Biese said is the greatest obstacle standing in the way of the growth of the program.

According to Biese, many UW professors have been reluctant to participate in the program because it would require them to use the same book for however long it takes to pay off the cost of the textbook.

"A lot of the professors we've contacted have been very interested," Biese said. "But, many of them haven't been able to commit to the number of semesters, because they don't know whether they'll be teaching [the textbook] that many semesters in a row — or the same class."

Biese added it would be unrealistic to think every course on campus will be able to participate in the program, due to the size of the university and the large number of classes.

However, Biese said ASM was working to make sure all the schools and colleges at UW eventually participate in the program, "to make sure no students are left out."

Though it has yet to sell a single textbook, the pilot textbook-rental program has already generated excitement within ASM.

"It gives ASM the opportunity to start up something that really hasn't been done before," said SSFC Vice Chair Eric Saar, who was part of the committee that approved funding for the program. "Our main concern was that it wouldn't be successful. But the argument that outweighed that was, why not take a risk on something that can benefit every single person on campus?"