A federal textbook law goes into effect tomorrow to help students find affordable textbooks and manage their textbook expenses.
With annual expenditures on textbooks approaching $700 to $1000 per student, the act ensures the disclosure of information to professors, bookstores and students that will help keep textbook prices down, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Such information includes the price and a description of the content revisions made between the current edition and previous edition. This ensures professors know how much students are spending and if an upgrade to a new edition is necessary.
In addition, the school must provide institution-affiliated bookstores with the maximum student enrollment for a course to prevent over-purchasing textbooks, which causes higher prices.
Former President George W. Bush signed the textbook legislation into law in 2008.
According to the legislation, ""The purpose … is to ensure that students have access to affordable course materials by decreasing costs to students and enhancing transparency and disclosure with respect to the selection, purchase, sale and use of course materials.""
In addition to the federal policy, the UW System Board of Regents instated a new policy in June to help students manage textbook costs.
In the wake of a tuition increase for all four-year UW universities, UW System spokesperson David Giroux thinks it is important to help students cut costs wherever possible.
""It is a new policy that brings policy in line with the new federal law,"" Giroux said. ""It puts students in a better position to be able to afford textbooks.""
According to the Board of Regents, the new policy calls on UW campuses to take various actions including developing a textbook calendar program to enable students more time to shop for the best prices; publishing the retail price of required course materials with course schedules; and encouraging student-managed initiatives, such as textbook swaps.
According to Regent President Charles Pruitt ensuring that textbooks are affordable for all students has been a high priority of the Board of Regents for many years.
In a statement, Pruitt said the goal of the policy is to put ""into place long-term guidance that will help both UW campuses and students know what practical steps they can take to keep textbook costs as low as possible while maintaining the high-quality academic program for which the UW System is known.""
According to the Board of Regents, each UW campus will be responsible for implementing the procedures locally.
According to the UW-Madison Office of the Registrar, the university already adheres to many of the requirements of the federal act.
""We are in compliance with the university system and we feel good about the university and federal policy. We'll keep doing what we are doing,"" said Aaron Brower, vice provost for teaching and learning.
Brower said there are already worthwhile programs on campus to help students save money on textbooks.
""The Associated Students of Madison sponsored book swap is an excellent program and I want the university community to support that,"" Brower said.
