UW-Madison hopes to pilot a program that would slash student textbook prices by large margins, according to a university official.
Steve Cramer, UW-Madison’s vice provost for teaching and learning, addressed Associated Students of Madison’s Shared Governance Committee Tuesday, imploring its members to aid in his office’s efforts to make textbooks more affordable for students.
“This isn’t going to go anywhere without your support,” Cramer said. “[High textbook cost] is an issue we need to address.”
The way to address it, Cramer said, is through the “university model” of online textbook purchasing. Under this system, UW-Madison would automatically buy online texts for every student enrolled in a course and then bill the students directly.
Because the university could purchase the texts through a “consortium” made up of 11 other schools and the University of Florida system, the average student would end up spending far less on class texts, according to Cramer.
Indiana University already uses the system, which they say saves their students approximately $3.5 million per year. Under the program, students save 78 percent on texts published by Pearson, 77 percent on those published by Cengage and 60 percent on Sage Publishing texts, compared to buying print copies.
Some large publishing companies like McGraw Hill are not part of the “consortium,” however. A few committee members were concerned that professors would still assign texts that are not available online, effectively negating the cost-saving mechanisms in place.
Cramer said over time professors would adjust to the new system.
“Wrestling a little of that [faculty] autonomy away is going to be evolutionary, not revolutionary,” Cramer said. “It’s going to take time.”
Through the proposed system, the university could also access data on whether students are actually using their online texts, which could help professors assign more engaging readings.
“If it becomes transparent that no one is using an expensive book … maybe [professors] ought to consider doing something else,” Cramer said.
The university hopes to start a pilot program involving a few departments either in Fall 2017 or Spring 2018, Cramer told the committee. He said that ideally a more comprehensive system would be in place in five or 10 years.
But Cramer also stressed he wanted to hear feedback from students before going forward.
“You are the primary benefactors of this,” Cramer said. “If you don’t see it as a benefit, we’re not going to impose it upon you.”
