Academic Affairs says its working to propose resolution to adopt
policies to aid students when making purchases for next semester
Associated
Students of Madison’s Academic Affairs Committee launched its
Affordable Textbook Campaign, mainly targeted at lowering textbook
costs for students, which was endorsed by Student Council this week and
will be presented to the University Committee next Monday.
Jonah
Zinn, chair of Academic Affairs, said at the current stage they are
trying to get the University Committee to adopt the resolution on
textbook policies and ultimately get it passed through the Faculty
Senate.
“If
the resolution is passed, it will begin in December. The aims are to
educate professors on the importance of textbook choices and to get
professors putting (out) book lists four weeks before the semester
starts so that there will be enough time for students to find various
options.” Zinn said. “We really want to take this a step further. We
think it’s important that faculty is aware and acknowledges the
problem.”
According
to Zinn, ASM had launched a program known as the Textbook Swap before,
which allowed students to drop off used textbooks so that other
students could buy those textbooks at lower prices. However, the root
of the problem is the rising textbook costs.
“Over
the past semester, we have been doing research and finding what was the
best for students. We have been conducting surveys and talking to
students, researching for information anywhere we could on this issue,”
Zinn said.
Zinn
said ASM had been talking to bookstores, faculty and students, and had
conducted a survey with over 1,800 students on campus concerning the
issue.
“We had also talked to student groups, such as WISPIRG,” Zinn said.
Austin
Hetrick, ASM spokesperson, said he agreed the Affordable Textbook
Campaign could be considered an extension of the Textbook Swap program.
“The
meeting on Monday is important. We will be presenting the resolution to
the University Committee. Once we get the University Committee
endorsement, we are going to have a press conference announcing that,”
Hetrick said.
Concerning
how students can participate in the campaign, Hetrick said the campaign
is still in launching mode now, but there will be events such as
professor education and meetings coming up that welcome students’
involvement. And, according to Zinn, having the campaign endorsed by
the Student Council is important, because it gives more legitimacy to
the campaign.
Tyler
Junger, chair of Student Council, said students in general think
textbooks are too expensive. He added students should take the
initiative to solve this problem. Shimeng Mai, project coordinator of
Affordable Textbook Campaign for WISPIRG, said it is really good to
have this campaign because the two organizations can cooperate with
each other to strive for lowering textbook costs for students.
