Many
colleges and universities are looking for ways to shrink the out-of-pocket
expense of course materials in response to pressure from students, parents,
policymakers, and legislators. However, as campus administrators investigate
possible solutions, they’re sometimes coming under fire from faculty.
For
example, at Alamo Colleges in Texas, faculty were not at all happy with the
chancellor’s recent proposal to cut textbook costs by requiring each course
section to use the same materials, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Alamo comprises five
community colleges, with a number of the same courses taught by different
faculty at different campuses.
Faculty
viewed the proposal as infringing on their academic right to assign whatever
course materials they deem most suitable for the class. The chancellor saw it
as the means to negotiate bulk purchases of textbooks or license digital
materials to secure a lower per-unit cost.
For at
least some courses, only a digital version of the textbook would be available
to students, which also raised a red flag for faculty. They expressed concerns
about students without Internet access at home.
The
University of Utah is trying to avoid that kind of conflict. The UU Academic
Senate appointed a committee to come up with ways to snip as much as $500
annually from each student’s textbook tab, according to The Daily Utah Chronicle.
The committee has representatives from faculty, staff (including the bookstore),
and students, who will work together to develop recommendations.
