2:016 Adoption of Textbooks and Ancillary Course Materials

1. The chair/director of each academic department/school shall review and act upon faculty requests to adopt textbooks for the department’s/school’s courses and faculty requests for faculty-authored textbook adoptions (Also see Section II, Process for Selecting Faculty-Authored Textbooks).  Chairs/directors may choose to form a Textbook Selection Committee(s) to oversee textbook adoptions for the department’s/school’s courses prior to submission to the chair/director for action.
2. Faculty members must submit requests for all textbook adoptions to the appropriate chair/director (or department/school Textbook Selection Committee) in an adequate timeframe for consideration as provided in (1) and (2) above.
3. Reviews, if conducted by the department/school Textbook Selection Committee(s), shall include recommendations based upon majority vote. Reviews, whether conducted by chairs/directors or by department/school Textbook Selection Committees, should include input from affected adjunct instructors.  The chair/director (or Textbook Selection Committee) shall review recommended textbooks using the following criteria as guidelines:  

Criteria for Textbook Selection

The proposed textbook should:

1. match the learning objectives outlined in each course syllabus;
2. provide a reasonable cost to students. As a way of ensuring reasonable cost, faculty members should consider practices that reduce the cost of course materials, such as recommending the adoption of the least expensive option from the available products that meet the requirements of the course.  Bundled materials (a group of objects joined together by packaging or required to be purchased as an indivisible unit) only should be considered if there is a cost savings to students;
3. provide all information in a manner that accommodates the needs of hearing- and visually-impaired learners in accordance with state and federal regulations;
4. contain current copyright dates and revision cycles; and,
5. be printed by a reputable publisher. 

1. If a department/school does not submit a textbook adoption request for a particular course by the deadline established in the calendar disseminated by the Provost, the university bookstore may order the same textbook as used in the most immediate prior semester/term or a new edition (if the previous edition is no longer available in sufficient quantities).
2. Once approved, textbooks for a particular semester or term must be entered into the textbook adoption system of the contracted bookstore by individual faculty members or a representative of the department.  
3. The contracted bookstore shall provide to individual faculty members (or chairs/directors to disseminate to faculty members) on a per course basis the costs to students of purchasing the required textbooks and course materials. Faculty members (or the chair/director on behalf of the faculty member) must confirm to the bookstore representative the total cost of textbooks for each course offering before an order is completed.  
4. The contracted bookstore should periodically provide a list of adopted textbooks to the university in a format acceptable to comply with public records inquiries for each semester or term.  The list of adopted textbooks also must be made available to students and other interested parties through links on the university’s website (or in the university’s library or other convenient location) and must minimally include the textbook’s International Standard Book Number (ISBN) to comply with Section 133 of the Higher Education Opportunity Act.
5. The contracted bookstore must, to the fullest extent possible, provide students the option of purchasing the textbooks and other study products separately from each other when not prohibited by the publisher.
6. The contracted bookstore shall actively promote and publicize book buy-back programs and the availability (whenever possible) of used textbooks.
7. When textbooks have been furnished at no charge by the publisher for student   use, these copies shall be made available to students, at no cost, through the academic department or the institution's library.  Faculty members are encouraged to donate desk and review copies of adopted textbooks for this purpose.
8. The contracted bookstore should use existing staff to comply with the textbook inventory and monitoring processes.
   
   

1. If a faculty member desires to use faculty-authored textbooks from which s/he, or any person or business associated with the faculty member’s family, obtains direct financial gain, the faculty member shall submit this recommendation to the chair/director (or Textbook Selection Committee) well before the material is expected to be used in the classroom.  The textbook must be approved by both the department, reviewed by the Conflict of Interest Committee and authorized by the President before an order is placed by the university bookstore. 
2. Any recommendation to adopt a faculty-authored textbook should include justification regarding the reason the required textbook(s) is uniquely suited for use in the author’s course; an estimation of the total number of students who will be required to purchase the textbook(s); the estimated cost of the textbook(s) related to other appropriate textbook(s); and the estimated profit of the textbook(s), if any, to the faculty member and/or his/her family.
3. The Textbook Selection Committee shall review the recommendation to adopt a faculty-authored textbook and consider the appropriateness of the textbook(s), according to the criteria set forth in Section I.  The faculty member must demonstrate why the recommended material is better suited for adoption than other published materials.
4. If the chair/director or Textbook Selection Committee recommends the adoption of the faculty-authored textbook(s), notification of that initial recommendation shall be provided to the faculty member.
5. If the textbook is formally adopted, the faculty member and/or his/her family may donate the royalties/profits (subject to the following section University Interests in Faculty-Authored Textbooks) from sales to APSU students, to the faculty member’s desired non-profit charity, professional association, or APSU Foundation scholarship fund. 
6. The faculty member shall disclose all personal relationships to the adopted textbook(s) that s/he has requested on the Statement of Interest Form, required by APSU Policy 1:001—Conflict of Interest
   

1. If a department chair receives a recommendation from a faculty member or the Textbook Selection Committee, s/he may request modification or reconsideration of the recommended materials based upon the potential costs to students.
2. The faculty member shall forward all documents regarding suitable substitute materials and student needs to the Conflict of Interest Committee. The Committee will review the conflict of interest disclosure and provide a recommendation to the President specific to the following questions:
• Should the material, if not yet produced, be permitted for student use?
• Is the conflict of interest manageable given other textbook options?
• Should the university claim an interest in the material (per APSU Policy 2:047)?
• How will any royalties/profits be distributed (per APSU Policy 2:047)?
3. The President will consider the Conflict of Interest Committee’s recommendation, and, after deciding whether to approve, modify or reject the recommendation, will notify the Provost, Committee, the appropriate dean, the appropriate chair/director, and the faculty member regarding her/his decision.

APSU Policy 1:001

APSU Policy 2:047

https://www.apsu.edu/policy/intellectual-property-patents-and-copyrights-2047