A 2021 Pilot @ Department of English

A Brief History

On Sep 29, 2021, Professors Zhiwu Xie and Charlene Eska gave a presentation titled "Affordable (Reusable) Textbook Initiative" at the Department of English Executive Meeting to present the ideas of this program, followed by the same presentation on Oct 13, 2021 at the department faculty meeting, co-presented also by Katlyn Griffin, calling for faculty participation in this new initiative for the 2022 Spring semester.

14 Department of English courses offored at the 2022 Spring semester signed up, with 11 courses able to achieve significant cost reduction for students through the consultation. Primary ways to reduce cost include:

1. delay the adoption of the latest textbook edition, instead adopt an older but sufficiently updated edition where cheaper used copies are abundantly available

2. choose or accommodate the use of an edition for which the library already has a paper copy or an electronic subscription

3. not require texts from any specific publisher, translator, or edition

4. accommodate the usage of a legal, openly accessible edition, e.g., Open Educational Resources, the Project Gutenberg etc

5. make certain purchases (e.g., workbook) optional, not require one-time registration for course companion bundled with a new textbook purchase, etc

University Libraries put on the course reserve a copy of those more expensive textbooks, and provided a few more for full semester checkout to students in need.