(A) Policy
statement
In accordance with the in section
3345.025 of the Revised Code,
textbook selection policy, it is the policy of the university of Toledo to
encourage efforts to minimize the cost of textbooks and other instructional
materials for students while equally maintaining the quality of education and
the faculty's right to academic freedom.
(B) Purpose of policy
To provide guidance on the selection and adoption of textbooks
and other instructional materials in an effort to enhance college
affordability.
(C) Scope
This policy applies to all full-time and part-time
undergraduate and graduate course faculty, including instructors.
(D) Roles and responsibilities
When selecting the most suitable textbook and other
instructional materials, faculty should consider:
(1) Quality;
(2) Cost;
(3) Availability;
(4) Alternative formats;
(5) Content revisions of previous
editions;
(6) Supplementary bundled
products;
(7) Coordination with
other instructors or courses;
(8)
Coordination with other campus units, such as the bookstore and university
libraries, and
(9)Texts and
instructional materials used at other co-located state institutions of higher
education.
(E)
Faculty-authored materials for which students are required to pay
(1) Definition: Faculty-authored materials
for which students are required to pay subject to this policy include all
published self-authored materials, including those that are self-published.
This does not include materials published by faculty with academic or trade
publishers in the field, which are subject to editing and peer-review processes
customary for materials in that field.
(2) Disclosure: Faculty who intend to assign
self-published materials, for which students are required to pay, should
provide a written disclosure to the enrolled students and to the department
chair or the appropriate administrator.
(3) Approval: Adoption of self-published
materials, for which the student is required to pay, needs approval from the
chair of the department from which the course is offered or, in the case of
faculty in units without chairs, the appropriate administrator. When there is a
dispute concerning the chair's approval, a department faculty committee with
the appropriate curriculum background should be convened to resolve the
disagreement. The college dean should be the final decision point in cases of
dispute.
(4) When assigning
faculty-authored materials published by academic or trade publishers in the
field, which are subject to editing and peer-review processes, faculty should
inform the chair or appropriate administrator and be mindful of the perceived
potential financial conflict of interest.
(F) Bookstore
(1) Faculty should inform the university
bookstore each semester as early as possible and by the required deadline of
the textbooks and other instructional materials they intend to use for each
course.
(2) If there are no
textbooks or instructional materials required for a course, the university
bookstore should also be informed as early as possible and by the required
deadline.
