2:016 Adoption of Textbooks and Ancillary Course Materials
Austin Peay State
University |
Adoption of Textbooks and Ancillary Course Materials
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| POLICIES |
| Issued: |
March 8, 2017
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| Responsible Official: |
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
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| Responsible Office: |
Academic Affairs |
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Policy Statement
In the Tennessee Code Annotated 49-7-141, it is required that Austin Peay State University
develop a policy for minimizing the cost of textbooks and ancillary course materials
to students while maintaining quality of education and academic freedom. The term
“textbook”, when used hereafter, shall include all course materials that must be purchased
for a particular course offering and applies to textbooks, eBooks, lab materials,
and other course material.
Purpose
This policy is intended to encourage the use of textbooks for multiple, rather than
single, semesters or terms, thereby creating a demand and market for used texts that
result in lower costs of educational supplies for students. Because new editions
of existing textbooks typically result in additional costs to students, the adoption
of a new edition shall follow the same process as the adoption of a new textbook.
Departments/schools are encouraged to adopt identical materials for all sections of
a specific course offering. When practical, departments/schools should adopt textbooks
that can be used by multiple courses.
The contracted bookstore and university are required to follow Section 133 of the
Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) as it relates to consumer disclosure information
for textbooks. The university is required to post all adoptions online and the university
has the option to utilize its contracted bookstore web system to comply with Section
133.
All textbooks must be adopted following the process outlined in Section I below.
At times, it may be recommended that a department/school adopt a textbook written
by a faculty member or in which that faculty member (or a family member) has a potential
financial interest; in these cases, Sections I and II must be followed.
Contents
Procedures
-Process for Adopting Textbooks
-Process for Selecting Faculty-Authored Textbooks or Textbooks in which the Faculty
or Family Member has a Financial Interest
- University Interests in Faculty-Authored Textbooks
Links
-APSU Policy 1:001
-APSU Policy 2:047
Procedures
Process for Adopting
Textbooks |
The Provost shall develop and disseminate a calendar of deadlines for the submission
of textbook adoptions approved pursuant to this policy for each semester or term in
a given academic year at the university.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- match the learning objectives outlined in each course syllabus;
- 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;
- provide all information in a manner that accommodates the needs of hearing- and visually-impaired
learners in accordance with state and federal regulations;
- contain current copyright dates and revision cycles; and,
- be printed by a reputable publisher.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The contracted bookstore shall actively promote and publicize book buy-back programs
and the availability (whenever possible) of used textbooks.
- 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.
- The contracted bookstore should use existing staff to comply with the textbook inventory
and monitoring processes.
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Process for Selecting
Faculty-Authored
Textbooks or Textbooks
in which the Faculty or
Family Member has a
Financial Interest |
The use of faculty-authored materials in teaching activities is defined as a form
of self-dealing. Materials in which a faculty member (or any family member) have
a financial interest may be approved institutionally if the appropriate disclosures
are filed and the faculty member demonstrates that the recommended material is best
suited to the course being offered. The following steps apply whether or not the
faculty member expects an immediate financial gain. These steps also apply to requests
for replacing existing faculty-authored materials with new faculty-authored materials
(e.g., a new edition of a currently adopted textbook).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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University Interests in
Faculty-Authored
Textbooks |
- 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.
- 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)?
- 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.
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Links
Revision Dates
APSU Policy 2:016 (previously 2:017) – Revised: March 8, 2017
APSU Policy 2:016 – Issued: June 19, 2008
Subject Areas:
| Academic |
Finance |
General |
Human
Resources |
Information
Technology |
Student
Affairs |
| X |
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Approved
President: signature on file