Undergraduate Student Government Downtown President Frank Smith III is proposing a revised textbook pledge as part of his re-election platform.
The new pledge would have ASU professors agree to only use textbooks with online versions. Smith said that by using books with online versions, textbooks would become more affordable and sustainable.
This is a departure from an earlier textbook pledge proposed by former USGD President Joseph Grossman in 2012. That pledge asked professors to keep the same editions of textbooks for a fixed period of time instead of making students buy new editions. That way, it would be easier to buy used books and would allow students to then sell their older editions back.
Despite the pledge not gaining much traction among professors, Smith supported it in last year’s election. He said changes need to be made now because professors were not open to the concept.
“We didn’t get the feedback we were looking for from the faculty senate,” Smith said. “So we’re looking at alternative ways to meet the same goal of bringing down the price of textbooks. Same goal, different route.”
Sandra Mayol-Kreiser is president of the University Senate for the Downtown Phoenix Campus. The University Senate is ASU’s faculty government. Mayol-Kreiser said she is still slightly uncomfortable with the idea of limiting professors’ options.
“When you’re under the notion that it has to be one way, you’re not giving yourself much flexibility,” Mayol-Kreiser said. “The problem can be in the promising.”
Mayol-Kreiser, who teaches courses in nutrition and health promotion, said many brand new textbooks do not have online versions right away, and waiting for them to be published online could mean making the textbooks obsolete.
“By the time a textbook is published online, sometimes it’s already old information, especially in the science fields,” she said.
Mayol-Kreiser said there are other ways to save students money.
“I meet with other professors and we try to use the same textbook in more than one class,” Mayol-Krieser said. “It’s an expensive book, and so I cover certain areas and I have another professor cover other areas of the same textbook. We try to save money that way for our students, and there are other professors who are trying to do the same thing.”
Smith agreed that forcing professors to take part in the old program has caused setbacks.
“It was more of the wording, where all professors would be required to do this,” Smith said, “whereas the new program is more of a pledge program, an opt-in.”
Smith said that, although online versions can often cost more than used textbooks, the new pledge program can lead to a more open discussion between student government and professors regarding textbooks.
“If this passes, we will definitely work on other alternatives to how we can make textbooks more affordable instead of just this one thing,” Smith said.
Alexis Kramer, Smith’s challenger and current Walter Cronkite School senator, said students should have more options for affordable textbooks.
“When you purchase an online textbook, you can’t really resell it and you can’t return. You’re given one serial number and it’s not really cost effective,” Kramer said. “In order to make this work, there need to be a lot more options for students.”
So far, USGD Vice President of Policy Melber Macainan has begun speaking with professors about the idea, according to Smith. He said they aim to formally propose the new pledge at the next Downtown Phoenix Campus University Senate meeting in May.
Alexis Kramer said she is frustrated by how long it has taken to accomplish lowering the cost of textbooks.
“If you’re going to do it, you’ve got to do it immediately,” Kramer said. “People are already purchasing new textbooks.”
Contact the reporter at Andrew.Romanov@asu.edu
