Two giant mascots from the nationwide Textbook Rebellion movement engaged in a vicious battle on East Campus Mall Wednesday morning to garner support for a Madison-area petition concerning textbook prices.

The University of Wisconsin was one stop on the Textbook Rebellion’s tour of college campuses launched Aug. 31. The Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group sponsored the movement’s Madison appearance as part of its affordable textbook campaign.

The aim of the tour is to collect 10,000 signatures in favor of Open Textbooks, a program allowing free digital access to participating college textbooks and print options of textbooks at low costs.

Two mascots standing tall at around 5-feet have grown to be national symbols for the movement. The taller “Mr. $200 Textbook,” wears a dark suit and top hat, while the “Textbook Rebel” is shorter and yellow.

Sydney Zettler, WISPIRG’s Textbook Rebellion coordinator, said the event relates to students as textbook prices are becoming an important issue on campus.

Citing an anecdote from her summer, Zettler noted how textbook prices are a serious issue for everyone but especially for students paying for college on their own.

“Take me, for example,” she said. “I worked this summer, put aside $1,000 for college. Half of this was spent solely on textbooks. For students that are paying for college, textbooks have become another added expense.”

UW microbiology professor Timothy Paustian offered to speak at the event because he said textbook pricing is an issue he is passionate about.

Paustian said he began using Flat World Knowledge after seeing how steep the costs of other microbiology books were because he said expensive textbooks impose a serious burden on his students.

Flat World Knowledge is the largest publisher catering to college students with free and open textbooks.

“It is ridiculous that students are paying on average $900 a semester on textbooks,” Paustian said. “Absolutely ridiculous, especially when considering recent technology advents.”

Paustian said he supported the Textbook Rebellion for its emphasis on the usage of Open Textbooks.

He said he believes there is no reason for textbook prices to have risen when publishing techniques have lowered costs.

“The costs in the textbook industry have gone down with the web and new publishing techniques,” he said. “They’re just taking advantage of students now because they can.”

Zettler agreed, saying high textbook prices affect students, some of whom are unable to buy at least one of their books.

She said in today’s university environment, textbooks have become part of a “broken market.”

To remedy the market, Paustian said putting pressure on the textbook publishing industry would help faculty choose more cost-efficient textbooks for students, ultimately decreasing the amount students spend.

“It’s time for publishing to be free and open to everybody,” Paustian said. “Students should be able to get the information they need and for faculty to have the ability to choose textbooks that don’t put a huge burden on students.”