The Associated Students of Madison‘s Academic Affairs Committee made moves at Tuesday’s meeting to improve the ASM Book Swap and link student organizations with the Madison community.
Rep. Matt Tobelmann provided an outline for a guide on the ASM Textbook Sale, more commonly known as the book swap.
The guide would be designed to help future Academic Affairs Committee members run the textbook sale and provide information and records.
Tobelmann and other committee members agreed more security is needed at the next textbook sale, and they considered increasing the amount of days students are allowed to drop off and pick up textbooks.
He added he wants University of Wisconsin administration to approach the University Bookstore and get a list of all textbooks sold and their prices.
He predicted, however, the University Bookstore would be reluctant in providing those details.
Rep. T.J. Madsen said a Shared Governance Committee exists between ASM and the University Bookstore; therefore, that relationship could be built on to improve the book swap.
Another issue raised regarding the textbook sale was administrative support.
Academic Affairs Committee Chair Jonah Zinn said Aaron Brower, UW professor and vice provost for teaching and learning, shared a lot of interest and enthusiasm for the textbook sale in a report to the UW System Board of Regents, but he did not become involved with the sale any further.
He added he hopes to get more administrative involvement.
As part of the Affordable Textbook Campaign, the Academic Affairs Committee hopes to create a committee on the Shared Governance branch of ASM.
Zinn said this committee would be extremely beneficial because the Affordable Textbook Campaign would be a semi-permanent establishment in ASM that could deal with new textbook related problems and solutions.
ASM Intern Peter Lorenz came up with an idea to team student groups with service organizations, particularly those that deal with education and accessibility to higher education.
There was some discussion of ASM possibly working with The Morgridge Center for Public Service, which promotes teaching and learning within the community, as well as the Center for Leadership and Involvement, which helps individuals develop into leaders in the community.
Lorenz said since this would be the first attempt, this can be a building semester to develop contacts with service organizations and a learning experience to make it successful in the future.
