Textbook Affordability Committee: FAU


This Committee has been discontinued because the work has been fully integrated into the work of the Colleges, the Libraries, and the Center for eLearning.

Projects Arising from the Textbook Affordability Committee

Context:

 

Across the country, students have been strongly impacted by the rising costs of textbooks and other required materials for their courses. Numerous studies at the national, state, and individual institutional level document that a significant percentage of students forego purchasing course materials because of cost and that this adversely affects both their academic success in those courses as well as their overall graduation rates. Many state legislatures and institutions of higher education have adopted mandates to reduce the costs of course materials.
Within the state of Florida, HB 7019 requires each FCS institution and state university to make lists of required and recommended texts at least 45 days before the first day of class for each term. It also requires a variety of reports documenting the costs of course materials and efforts to reduce those costs. Additionally, within the State University System of Florida, the Board of Governors has implemented a Performance-Based Funding Model that determines the funding allocated to each university based on their Excellence or Improvement for each metric. PBF Metric 3 deals with the Average Cost to the Student (Net Tuition per 120 Credit Hours).

At FAU, textbook affordability was addressed by two committees. The Textbook Adoption Compliance Committee is focused on meeting the requirements of HB7019. The Textbook Affordability Committee was focused on improving the university’s performance.

Charge:

Reporting to the Vice Provost, the Textbook Affordability Committee was charged to:

 

  • Work closely with the Textbook Adoption Compliance Committee

  • Develop materials to inform faculty, students, and administrators about the issues

  • Identify options for reducing the cost of textbooks for students

  • Present proposals to the Vice Provost and others for review

  • Establish working groups across the university to focus on specific options

  • Implement approved options to reduce costs of course materials to students

  • Gather data documenting efforts and results

  • Develop student satisfaction tracking to quantify key issues, measure trends over time and establish benchmarks that a new solution can be compared to

  • Report to the Vice Provost each semester and share information about the Committee’s activities on an open web site

  • Work to improve performance on BOG Metric 3 Cost of Education to the Student

As needed, Working Groups were established to focus on specific projects to facilitate rapid implementation of programs to reduce costs to students. 

Membership


Representatives from the Campus Bookstore and other groups were brought in to specific discussions, as needed.



2018-2019 Members

  • Carol Hixson, Dean of University Libraries, Chair
  • E. Niyah Anderson
  • Victoria Brown, College of Education
  • Geoffrey Johnson, Provost's Office (Liaison to Textbook Adoption Compliance Committee
  • Lisa Greenberg, College of Science
  • James Wetterer, Honors College
  • Andac Arikan, College of Business
  • John Sandell, College of Design and Social Inquiry
  • Lisa Finnegan, College of Education
  • George Cai, College of Engineering and Computer Science
  • Darin Trelka, College of Medicine
  • Nancey France, College of Nursing
  • Elizabeth Kennedy, University Advising Services
  • Kevin Roble, Graduate Student (Educational Leadership)
  • Sibel Bode, Undergraduate Student, Jupiter

Textbook Costs Background Materials