The Higher Education Act, the main legislation authorizing federal financial assistance in higher education, includes a provision, commonly referred to as the “textbook provision”, that requires each institution receiving federal financial assistance to disclose, to the maximum extent practicable, the International Standard Book Number and retail price information of required and recommended college textbooks and supplemental materials for each course listed in the institution's course schedule used for preregistration and registration. This information must be disclosed on the institution's web-based course schedule and made available to students at the time of registration. According to Congress,
“The purpose of this section 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. It is the intent of this section to encourage all of the involved parties, including faculty, students, administrators, institutions of higher education, bookstores, distributors, and publishers, to work together to identify ways to decrease the cost of college textbooks and supplemental materials for students while supporting the academic freedom of faculty members to select high quality course materials for students.”
Faculty enter the required information in Workday for the students to review. Click here to view step by step instructions. Prior to the start of registration for any semester faculty must enter in Workday either that no books are required or enter the required book information. If a complete list of textbooks is not known at the time, enter a partial list of the known books and finish it no later than the first day of classes for the term.
RISD also encourages all studio faculty to enter estimated out of pocket-to students materials costs on Workday.