Campus Community
Posted: Thursday, October 22, 2009New Textbook Policy Aids Students, Parents
Starting this spring, the recently passed Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) will have a significant and positive impact on the college’s faculty, staff, and students.
The legislation of the HEOA is extensive, affecting mostly the operations and reporting provisions of offices such as Financial Aid, Registrar, University Police, and Institutional Research. However, Section 133 of the HEOA will have a much broader impact on the college—requiring institutions to disclose certain information relating to textbooks on all Internet course schedules at the time they are published.
“The main purpose of the new federal guidelines is to offer students as much information as possible as soon as possible in order that they may make informed decisions about purchasing their books,” said Kevin Railey, interim provost. “The spirit of this law is really information sharing.”
Effective July 1, 2010, institutions that maintain Internet course schedules will have to post International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) and retail price information for required and recommended textbooks and supplemental materials for each listed course. The college plans to comply with this legislation by including links to the textbook information for summer 2010 and fall 2010—the schedules that will be produced in spring 2010—in both the online course listings and within Internet course schedules in Banner via the Barnes and Noble at Buffalo State Bookstore Web site.
Consequently, textbook information must be provided to the bookstore earlier than usual, so that students can view the information along with their course listings.
For this reason, starting next semester, the faculty textbook requisition deadlines have been moved up by two weeks for summer and five weeks for fall. Those deadlines for summer and fall will now systematically occur on the last Friday in February (beginning February 26, 2010). Specific dates for future semesters are reflected in the college’s academic calendar.
“The bookstore Web site is the ideal vehicle for this use because it will be a central electronic location for our students to get book information,” said Railey. “Both the administration and the bookstore seek to offer information to students so they can make their own decisions about where and how to buy books.”
Lynn Puma, bookstore manager, echoes those sentiments: “Like the college administration, we want to assist students in getting the best possible prices in the easiest way possible.”
For more information about the HEOA, visit the U.S. Department of Education’s Web site. Questions about this legislation may be directed to the Finance and Management Office.
