Textbook affordability initiatives Wright State University Board of Trustees Friday, October 6 Berry Room, Wright State Nutter Center Dan Krane, Professor of Biological Sciences, Vice President of the Faculty Senate, Chair of the University’s Task Force on Affordability and Efficiency

Textbook costs Wright State students spent $4,662,853 on textbooks purchased at our bookstore for the 2016-17 academic year. Students saved 21.8% ($1.2M) relative to list-price with used, rental and digital options. Textbook costs have increased by 945% since 1978. Nationwide textbooks cost 26% of the cost of tuition at state universities and 72% of the cost of tuition at community colleges. $4,257,853 at the Dayton campus bookstore, $405,000 at the Lake campus. Cost of texts purchased through wholesalers like Amazon.com are not included in this total. http://www.uspirg.org/news/usp/student-group-releases-new-report-textbook-prices

Governor’s Task Force on Affordability and Efficiency in Higher Education “All institutions of higher education in Ohio must explore means of reducing the cost of textbooks and report annually on their progress in that area.” October 1, 2015. https://www.ohiohighered.org/affordability-efficiency/task-force

WSU Undergraduate Student Government resolution Specifically “urges the Wright State University faculty to consider less-expensive course materials without compromising the quality of instruction.” Spring, 2017.

WSU Faculty Senate Undergraduate Student Success Committee charged to “develop additional strategies to reduce the cost of textbooks so that a report can be made to the Faculty Senate at its first meeting of the 2017-18 academic year.” Spring, 2017.

WSU Faculty Senate resolution “No policy or administrative action should in any way impinge upon an individual instructor’s ability to choose whatever textbooks and other teaching materials (e.g. software, course notes, etc.) they have determined to be most appropriate for the classes that they are assigned to teach.” WSU University Policy 2030.1.1 http://policy.wright.edu/policy/2030-faculty-rights-and-responsibilities

WSU Faculty Senate resolution Recommends a four-pronged approach to reducing textbook costs: Inclusive Access Auto-adopt Incentivize faculty to adopt and/or adapt Open Education Resources Support efforts to make textbooks exempt from state sales tax Synergistic, cumulative savings of more than 50 to 70% of current textbook costs.

Inclusive access Institutions negotiate reduced prices and collect that money through their Bursar’s Office Students must be able to opt out Payment made to publishers based on census at 30 days Students realize lower costs and convenience – and better course outcomes Faculty expect all students to have materials on day one Publishers get a smaller margin but much better saturation Relatively little cost to institution

Inclusive access pilot Eight spring 2018 classes touching roughly 1,500 students Students must be able to opt out Payment made to publishers based on census at 30 days Courses identified as “Inclusive Courseware” Savings to students of almost $75,000 Manual opt-out for spring 2018 Integrated with Banner for 20 courses in fall 2018 Expanded to at least 200 courses in spring 2019

Inclusive access pilot

Auto adopt Federal law requires textbooks to be identified not later than the time that students can first register for a course For spring 2018, November 2 WSU’s compliance has been improving but is still less than 45% Auto adopt would allow the bookstore to assume that an instructor will use a particular text if: They have taught the course in the past two academic years They have not selected a text by the deadline Faculty will be able to change the book choice even after a selection is made

Incentivize use/creation of OERs Open Education Resources Successful programs at Ohio State, Ohio University and Miami University routinely see a 10 to 20-fold recurring return on one-time investments Create an ad hoc OER resources committee modeled after Miami’s and use up to $10,000 to incentivize faculty to adopt and/or adapt OERs for high enrollment courses

Make textbooks exempt from state sales tax State sales tax in Ohio is 5.75% Wright State students paid approximately $250,000 in sales tax on course materials in 2016-17 More than 100 things are exempted from state sales tax in Ohio Textbook sales are tax exempt in 22 states HB 308 and HB 337 https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation?5&pageSize=10&start=1&sort=LegislationNumber&dir=asc&statusCode&legislationNumber=337&generalAssemblies=132

Textbook costs Wright State students spent $4,662,853 on textbooks purchased at our bookstore for the 2016-17 academic year. Students saved 21.8% ($1.2M) relative to list-price with used, rental and digital options. Students would be expected to save 50 to 70% ($2.3 to $3.4M) relative to list-price if the textbook initiatives were in place for the 2016-17 academic year. $4,257,853 at the Dayton campus bookstore, $405,000 at the Lake campus. Cost of texts purchased through wholesalers like Amazon.com are not included in this total. http://www.uspirg.org/news/usp/student-group-releases-new-report-textbook-prices

Textbook costs Wright State students spent $4,662,853 on textbooks purchased at our bookstore for the 2016-17 academic year. Students saved 21.8% ($1.2M) relative to list-price with used, rental and digital options. Students would be expected to save 50 to 70% ($2.3 to $3.4M) relative to list-price if the textbook initiatives were in place for the 2016-17 academic year. Students would save at least $300 M annually if our initiatives were adopted statewide. $4,257,853 at the Dayton campus bookstore, $405,000 at the Lake campus. Cost of texts purchased through wholesalers like Amazon.com are not included in this total. http://www.uspirg.org/news/usp/student-group-releases-new-report-textbook-prices

Textbook affordability players Textbook affordability working group: David Baugham (Student Government president); Austin Rains (Student Trustee), Thomas Fenton (chair of the Faculty Senate Undergraduate Student Success Committee); Jennifer Gebhart (manager of the Wright State Bookstore); Carol Herringer (History); Nova Lasky (director of strategic initiatives and stakeholder relations for the Vice President of Business & Finance); Jamie Norris (director of auxiliary services for Business Services); Craig Woolley (CIO). Inclusive Courseware implementation group: Steve Sherbet (Bursar); Amanda Steele-Middleton (Registrar); Daniel Palmer (Student Government); Amy Barnhart (Financial Aid); and several members of the working group.