FGCU students may soon have access to more affordable textbooks.
On Friday, March 10, the Office of the General Counsel updated regulation FGCU-PR3.003, “Textbook Adoption and Affordability.”
“The purpose of this regulation is to establish textbook selection and adoption procedures to decrease the cost of textbooks to students, minimize the cost of textbooks for students, maintain the quality of education and ensure faculty academic freedom,” the general statement said.
Changes made to the regulation were mostly grammatical. The adapted regulation included a few added commas, as well as changes in capitalization and word choice.
FGCU’s Board of Trustees established a list of procedures in the regulation for “minimizing the cost of textbooks to students.”
The procedures consist of three parts. The first part states that the university “shall publish the textbook ordering and textbook adoption dates for the fall, spring and summer terms of each academic year in the university academic calendar.” It also states that in accordance with the Florida Board of Governors’ regulation 8.003, textbook orders must now be completed and made available for students no later than 45 days prior to the first day of classes for each term, rather than the previous 30 days.
The second part states that “no university employee may demand or receive any payment, loan, subscription, advance, deposit of money, service or anything of value, present or promised, in exchange for requiring students to make specific purchases.”
The third part states that the university shall establish a policy and procedure to assist students who have qualified for need-based educational financial assistance, students who have qualified for need-based financial aid and want to buy textbooks needed for classes for which the student has registered prior to the distribution of financial aid and students who have qualified for aid and need to purchase course pack materials.
The regulation can be viewed here.