How students buy and receive textbooks may be set to change if the University institutes a new program called “equitable access.”
“For those who might not be aware, ‘equitable access’ is a program that would provide online textbooks immediately at the start of the semester for all undergraduate students.” President Hunter Swilling said to the ASUW senate at a meeting on Feb. 8.
In this proposed program, all students would pay one flat rate for all their textbooks, regardless of content or major.
“If you’re an engineering major, you would pay the same amount as an art theater major,” Swilling said. “Although, typically, in the status quo right now, engineering would have to pay a lot more.”
Throughout the process of creating and looking into the introduction of the program, Swilling has said that he has been in communication with Steven Barret, the Associate Vice Provost Undergraduate Education, and Misty Eaton, the Manager of the university bookstore among other staff and faculty on campus.
Swilling said that to the best of his knowledge if implemented, ‘Equitable Access’ would not be optional.
“I do not want to pay one flat rate for all of my textbooks.” Avery Potter, a pre-med junior, said.
“I have had different expenses for textbooks every semester, and having a flat rate would defeat the purpose of having cheaper semesters that I have had in the past.”
Potter says that she is usually required to purchase one to three textbooks a semester, depending on her courses.
“I do not think it is fair that students would have to pay the same for fewer textbooks,” Potter said. “Everyone at the university is on a different path that requires different costs.”
“Students know and recognize that this is a part of college, and they should not be given the burden of stress if their costs were to increase.”
The implementation and potential mandatory participation in this program would make it so students are unable to outsource the purchasing of their textbooks.
“I have bought cheaper textbooks every semester online,” Joey Antonovich, a sophomore majoring in communications said. “This has reduced my expenses a ton.”
Antonovich said that he spends roughly $100 dollars on textbooks at the moment. Antonovich said this cost is half of what he would pay at the bookstore.
“We’re already paying money for the class, and if the books are a required part of the class, then we should not have to pay extra,” Max Radosevich, a freshman majoring in secondary education said.
Currently, there is no final decision on if or when the ‘Equitable Access’ program would be implemented.
