Asserting Faculty Primacy with Respect to Establishing Low-Cost Definitions and Instructional Materials Cost-Reduction Goals

Spring
2023
Resolution Number
13.07
 
Contact
Assigned to
Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)
Relations with Local Senates Committee
Category
General Concerns
Status
Assigned

Whereas, Selecting course instructional materials is part of the academic and professional matters listed under Title 5 §53200, and faculty have a responsibility to take into consideration the cost associated with those instructional materials;
 
Whereas, California community colleges have been increasingly subjected to mandates that were initially introduced as optional in areas that are clearly the purview of academic senates, including the creation of associate degrees for transfer, the submission of courses to the Course Identification Numbering System (C-ID), the removal of many math and English prerequisites, implementation of guided pathways, and approaches to maximizing the probability that students will enter and complete transfer-level coursework in English and mathematics within a one-year timeframe of their initial attempt; and

Whereas, The charge of the Equitable Student Experience: Burden-Free Instructional Materials Task Force—initially referred to as a ZTC Taskforce—is to evaluate the existing infrastructure that guides instructional material choices and provide recommendations to structural changes that will facilitate the creation of sustainable solutions that reduce textbook costs for students in the long term [1];

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges urge local academic senates to assert academic senate primacy in addressing course instructional material cost issues, including all aspects of local low-cost definitions and any goal setting related to instructional materials costs or the offering of zero textbook cost and low textbook cost sections.  

M/S/C


1. Zero Textbook Cost Program Updates, February 23, 2023: https://asccc-oeri.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/ztc-program-overview-and-guidance-a11y.pdf