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SSFC decision of MCSC budget

Associated Students of Madison’s Academic Affairs Committee launched its Affordable Textbook Campaign, mainly targeted at lowering textbook costs for students, which was endorsed by Student Council this week and will be presented to the University Committee next Monday.

Jonah Zinn, chair of Academic Affairs, said at the current stage they are trying to get the University Committee to adopt the resolution on textbook policies and ultimately get it passed through the Faculty Senate.

“If the resolution is passed, it will begin in December. The aims are to educate professors on the importance of textbook choices and to get professors putting (out) book lists four weeks before the semester starts so that there will be enough time for students to find various options.” Zinn said. “We really want to take this a step further. We think it’s important that faculty is aware and acknowledges the problem.”

According to Zinn, ASM had launched a program known as the Textbook Swap before, which allowed students to drop off used textbooks so that other students could buy those textbooks at lower prices. However, the root of the problem is the rising textbook costs.

“Over the past semester, we have been doing research and finding what was the best for students. We have been conducting surveys and talking to students, researching for information anywhere we could on this issue,” Zinn said.

Zinn said ASM had been talking to bookstores, faculty and students, and had conducted a survey with over 1,800 students on campus concerning the issue.

“We had also talked to student groups, such as WISPIRG,” Zinn said.

Austin Hetrick, ASM spokesperson, said he agreed the Affordable Textbook Campaign could be considered an extension of the Textbook Swap program.

“The meeting on Monday is important. We will be presenting the resolution to the University Committee. Once we get the University Committee endorsement, we are going to have a press conference announcing that,” Hetrick said.

Concerning how students can participate in the campaign, Hetrick said the campaign is still in launching mode now, but there will be events such as professor education and meetings coming up that welcome students’ involvement. And, according to Zinn, having the campaign endorsed by the Student Council is important, because it gives more legitimacy to the campaign.

Tyler Junger, chair of Student Council, said students in general think textbooks are too expensive. He added students should take the initiative to solve this problem. Shimeng Mai, project coordinator of Affordable Textbook Campaign for WISPIRG, said it is really good to have this campaign because the two organizations can cooperate with each other to strive for lowering textbook costs for students.