Mississippi State University administrators said they believe the Institutions for Higher Learning board will strongly consider passing the newly proposed textbook policy, but implementation may be a challenge.
Associate vice president for academic affairs and associate provost Jerry Gilbert said he is very much in support of the philosophy behind the textbook policy.
“I know that we need to do something,” he said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily anyone’s fault, but I think it has kind of gotten out of control in some areas and I think textbook prices have escalated too much.”
Gilbert said the administration plans to help faculty through the changes the proposed policy would create.
“I think the administration’s position is that they are supportive of the new textbook policy at IHL and we are going to try to implement it and do it in such a way that we minimize any inconvenience to our faculty,” Gilbert said.
Vice president for student affairs Bill Kibler said he thinks Mississippi is breaking ground by putting ideas in place that have been talked about for some time.
Kibler said he thinks the IHL board is convinced the proposed policy change is worth a try.
“I think the [IHL] board is virtually unanimous that this is a great idea,” he said. “We are expecting this to make a big difference, but the proof will be in the evidence we will get in a couple of semesters after cycling this through.”
Faculty Senate President Hart Bailey said he thinks the proposal will be helpful to students.
“I think that the issue with the cost of textbooks and the expense that puts on students and their families is something that must be addressed,” Bailey said. “Being a parent of two college students and one who is going through college now, I know personally that you can have a tremendous extra expense added when you have to buy the textbooks.”
Some members of the administration said they feel there may be struggles when implementing the new policy changes.
Gilbert said he thinks everything in the proposal is there for a purpose, but some parts of the proposal may be challenging. For example, if a department head must pick the book for a professor after their deadline has passed, it may present a problem.
“Let’s put it this way; I am still a faculty member and I would prefer to pick the book myself,” Gilbert said. “I taught several years ago, picked my own book and it was a very narrowly focused subject, so it would have been difficult for anyone else to pick the book for me.”
He said there are some subject areas where there might be a number of different textbooks which could be chosen for a particular class.
“Those books may have very different approaches to the subject which only someone with that particular subject knowledge, like a faculty member in that particular area, may know, and the department head may not know how that text might fit best with the course,” Gilbert said. “So I think it’s going to be a challenge, but I think we will adjust to it over time.”
The last thing the administration wants to do is hamper a faculty member’s ability to have control over the textbook selection, Gilbert said.
“We know the faculty member is best prepared to make that selection and to make that judgment,” Gilbert said. “Anytime we make a change it’s going to be difficult to adjust, but I think it will encourage us to do more communication.”
The new textbook policy proposes a deadline for professors to have their adoptions, or decisions regarding which book they will use for their course, at least 40 days prior to the end of the preceding semester.
Gilbert said having to have books chosen so far in advance is going to be difficult.
“It isn’t going to be impossible, but it is going to be one of the more challenging aspects of the proposal,” Gilbert said.
Kibler said he suspects there will be a few faculty members who have trouble meeting the adoption deadlines just because it is new.
“We will try to have enough of a window between when the deadline is and when you actually have to have it [the textbook choice] in the system so students can see it, so we can go back and clean up the few who haven’t turned it [the adoption] in,” Kibler said.
Kibler said he hopes there is no opposition to the policy, but that may be na’ve.
“I think the majority of faculties, which I know of here on this campus, are supportive of what we can do to save students costs on textbooks,” he said. “Many of our faculty members are just stunned at how expensive some of these books are.”
IHL communications director Leah Rupp Smith said she thinks this is something the board is perpetually concerned about because it directly affects students.
“I think the general consensus is that anything we can do to reduce the cost of textbooks, we want to do,” Smith said.
She said the policy could be voted on as early as Feb. 18.
“These policies are under consideration by the board and they could pick them up as soon as February, but it doesn’t mean they will,” Smith said. “It all depends on what else is going on and what they have to spend their time doing.”
Gilbert said he does not think it will be a problem getting the policy passed by the IHL, but there may be some concerns from faculty.
“I don’t think there will be opposition, but I am sure there will be people who are not supportive of all of the aspects of it [the policy] just because it is going to force us into a decision process that is much sooner than we’ve ever had in place prior to this new policy,” Gilbert said.