Ccc System Strategic Plan

APPENDIX B

System Office, California Community Colleges

Strategic Plan Action Planning Group for A2: Textbook Summit

November 30, 2007 Chabot College 25555 Hesperian Blvd, Hayward CA 9:30 am - 3:30 pm

Welcome and Introductions The meeting was called to order by System Office Vice Chancellor for Student Services and Special Programs Linda Michalowski, and participants were welcomed by Dr. Robert Carlson, President of Chabot College and Dr. Joel Kinnamon, Chancellor of the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District (CCD). Drs. Carlson and Kinnamon have supported the reduction of textbook costs and pointed out the importance of the committee’s work and the increasing legislative pressures to reduce costs. Committee members and audience participants were then asked to introduce themselves. Approximately 65 people attended, including representatives of several college constituencies, publishers, and used textbook wholesalers.

Purpose and Duration of Group

Linda Michalowski discussed the purpose of the group as investigating the options for lowering textbook costs. She described the group’s purpose in relationship to the System Strategic Plan goals of increasing student access and success, and of textbooks cost to college affordability. She also said the results of the committee’s work will inform a presentation and preliminary recommendations to the Board of Governors in March 2008.

Overview of Significant Issues Identified in Recent Studies related to Textbook Costs Prior to the meeting, staff distributed links to recent reports related to rising textbook costsi, asking that committee members and other participants read the executive summaries of the reports prior to the summit.

Debra Sheldon, Specialist, Student Services and Special Programs, gave a brief introduction to the reports, saying that much work had already been done to investigate the reasons and solutions to rising textbook costs and that the committee sought to build on existing work. She gave an overview of the issues and solutions highlighted in the three federal reports on the reading list: Turn the Page: Making College Textbooks More Affordable; An Economic Analysis of Textbook Pricing and Textbook Markets; and College Textbooks: Enhanced Offerings Appear to Drive Recent Price Increases. She said that the Turn the Page report was very comprehensive, and contained a list of most of the existing short-term solutions and pointed out the value of the CSU-CCC Digital Market place that is currently in development, as a model for the most promising long-term solution of developing a national digital textbook and learning materials market place. She thought the Economic Analysis report was interesting for several reasons, particularly because it points out that public universities comprise more than 70 percent of the 2 textbook market and thus have enormous potential to influence the textbook market if they can organize and collaborate.

Don Newton from the California Association of College Stores (CACS) then discussed the unique characteristics of the textbook market, in that publishers market directly to faculty members, bookstores order what faculty select and students pay for them. The market is a supply-driven, producer-centric market rather than a demand-driven, consumer-centric market and that students have little choice in what to buy. In a normal market the price is a constraint. The textbook market dilutes the power of that constraint and the only price constraint seems to be the national rate of tuition increases. Faculty can repair this market by developing and utilizing alliances, especially alliances among fellow faculty and with the bookstore.

Ray Murillo discussed the CSU Textbook Affordability Report. He said their textbook committee working on the report understood that they could not have a “one size fits all” approach towards campuses, but instead tried to provide a menu of options campuses could adopt. They did emphasize early adoption not only as key in reducing costs but because of its importance for students with disabilities and having time to find alternative media to support them. They prioritized the importance of various initiatives using the criteria of how much money each initiative would save students if adopted. He emphasized the interactive nature of digital offerings on the digital market place. They also looked at rental programs, custom cover editions, volume discounts, custom bundles and course packs, charging lower cost “license fees” for electronic copies of texts instead of hard copy textbooks. They are going to showcase the initiatives and how they can be implemented at campuses. They are also monitoring the legislative issues and are interested in the possibility of eliminating sales tax on textbooks.

Dan Crump reviewed the 2004 Academic Senate Textbook Reports. The report focused on concerns about academic freedom and that the primary concern is provided the best material for the students and that cost was important but secondary, and that the State Academic Senate cannot force faculty to do something. The intent was to inform all colleges of findings, but he was not sure that that was done. He said the textbook advisory committee works with publishers so the faculty can be informed of the price, and recommendations about length of use. He pointed out that colleges differ in the way they choose textbooks and in some colleges, departments choose a common textbook for courses, while in other colleges and departments it is a free choice by each faculty member. He said Senates need to encourage dialogue to work together for what is best for students.

Nicole Allen and Danny Katz discussed three of the six Student PIRG reports relating to textbooks. They pointed out that textbooks cost on average about $900 per year and that prices are rising at a rate four times that of inflation. They said that publisher practices contribute to rising prices by suppressing the used book market through issuing frequent new editions, bundling textbooks with additional multi-media materials and avoiding discussion of price in sales conversations with faculty. The Student PIRGs found that faculty prefer to assign cheaper books when they know the costs, and that students have an overwhelming preference to purchase used books over new books when they are available. 3

Overview of Practices and Initiatives that Can Reduce Textbook Costs  Bookstore Practices and Initiatives Don Newton, Jack Lemley and Kathleen Kaser representing the Community College Committee of the California Association of College Stores spoke about current law (Assembly Bill 2477, Liu) which gives an effective road map for colleges interested in reducing textbook costs. While not enforceable, it points out easily implemented steps colleges can take to ensure that textbooks are adopted with an understanding of their full economic cost. They emphasized that creating campus partnerships were key to lowering prices and that administrators, faculty, bookstore managers and students all had important leadership roles to play. They discussed 16 solutions that help lower prices:

1. Educate all stakeholders 10. Custom Cover Editions 2. Learn what textbooks cost on your 11. Customized Textbooks campus 12. Consortium Buying 3. Get adoption information on time 13. Create Economically Sound Bundles 4. Aggressively promote your store’s 14. Bookstore Created Bundles buyback 15. Implement a Rental Program on 5. Year round buy back Selected Titles 6. Utilize national used textbook 16. Create a student payment plan markets 7. Buy from internet providers 8. Price books based on actual costs 9. Textbook Borrowing (book loan)

Finally bookstore managers described specific steps that Trustees and CEOs, CIOs, CSSOs, Bookstore Managers, Academic Senates, and Students can take to reduce textbook costs. Mary Perry from Follet Higher Education Group, which operates 57 leased stores on community college campuses, spoke briefly about their efforts. They train managers on how to save students money, how to get faculty adoptions on time, which is also a problem for them. Short term they are working on increasing the used textbook market and work on custom editions. Long term they are interested in digital delivery since they believe this is a great way to lower costs. She offered information from their database about the highest volume sales to help in any consortium buying effort involving custom covers.

 Publisher and Used Textbook Association Practices and Initiatives Brian Collins, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. spoke emphasizing the importance of collaboration with all stakeholders and that publishers were an essential partner in any discussion to reduce costs. He said that publishers must compete with their own products in the used book market. He discussed the difficulties caused for publishers by the sale of faculty courtesy copies on the used book market. On digital texts he said they are definitely going in the direction of digital delivery, but that it is not the future but now, and that students now spend more time online than they do reading books. That is why they develop so many supplemental materials which are expensive. He discussed and was interested in working with the System on consortium buying. 4

Mike Kelly representing the Used Textbook Association echoed the information presented in the PIRG reports on the value of used textbooks, and the fact that students prefer them. He reechoed the need for all stakeholders to collaborate. He believes publishers do actively try to combat the used textbook market through sometimes unnecessary new editions. He cited studies showing faculty do not understand how they can influence the cost of textbooks through early adoption and collaboration with bookstores. He presented several case studies where bookstore managers were able to reduce costs to students by working in partnership with other campus administrators and faculty.

In responding to a question after his presentation related to digital texts and learning materials, Roe Darnell, President of Modesto Junior College, pointed out that students are often ready for digital learning materials and publishers are attempting to respond to that, but colleges and faculty are often not ready for the digital market. Ray Murillo from CSU agreed, saying they had found similar results in when doing their study and that getting faculty used to a new media and delivery system was very important. Mary Perry from Follet Higher Education Group pointed out that less than 5 percent of titles are available digitally at the moment. Ariel Saliva-Sclank from the Student Senate said that many CCC students are older, interested in vocational programs, not necessarily right out of high school and may not be technically competent, but vocational programs often offer many media resources which do not fit the learning styles of the older student. Ann Price from California Tomorrow pointed out the implications of the “digital divide” and that many low-income students still do not have access to computers or only have access at limited times during the day to either do coursework or investigate avenues for finding cheaper books.

 Student-led Practices and Initiatives Troy Carter from the Student Senate reminded the audience that there are 2.2 million CCC students in the system that are affected by this problem. He discussed the State Student Senate’s solutions to lowering textbook costs which include three resolutions. The first underscores the importance of faculty adoption procedures and that they are working with the Academic Senate on joint processes. The second supports textbook rental programs and the third proposes to eliminate state sales tax on textbooks, as many states have already done or are pursuing.

Alma De Castro, a student representative from Southwestern College, spoke about their textbook rental program. The program is a joint initiative between the Associated Student Organization and the campus store, piloted in spring 2006, with district funding beginning in the summer of 2006. The program started with the five most popular titles in the areas of Math, Economics, Biology and Health. The program has grown and is wildly popular. Benefits to the college have included positive press coverage, increased customer traffic in the bookstore, improved relationship between the bookstore and students and student government, and increased faculty support. 60 percent of students responding to a survey who used the program said having a rental book was a deciding factor in succeeding in their classes and 82 percent said they used the savings to add a class to their schedule.

 Faculty-led Practices and Initiatives 5

Greg Granderson described the work of the Statewide Academic Senate’s Taskforce on Textbooks which is just beginning, and the importance of having textbook adoption policies. Speaking from experience, he said that many faculty do not understand the need for getting textbook orders to bookstores in a timely manner and underlined the need for supporting faculty development related to textbook adoption policies and options and how they affect student success. The Taskforce is also looking at supporting textbook adoption polices and rental programs. They are investigating open education resources and online textbooks and their implications for faculty and students. He also stressed that the Community Colleges are the home of the digital divide.

Ann Price asked if there had been any discussion about the cost of textbooks in relationship to basic skills students, since they will have to take additional classes, and the burden of textbook costs will be particularly onerous to them. Greg said they have only discussed the possibility of using the same text book across course sections. Linda Michalowski interjected that there needed to be more discussion about textbooks and basic skills students, especially related to how instruction is delivered and the role of electronic delivery in both providing content in a way that works better with these students and that also may save them money. Greg was concerned that the course of record requires a textbook for the purposes of transfer and may be an obstacle when considering digital alternatives.

Greg also said that faculty would not want to give up receiving complimentary copies of textbooks, since that is the only way they have to decide when choosing a text. Troy Carter asked if receiving complimentary copies of books influenced faculty into selecting one text over another. A discussion followed where the selection process was explained and audience members raised issues of conflict of interest that did arise on the part of both publishers and faculty. Mike Kelly interjected that the re-importation of subsidized international copies of textbooks undercuts publishers’ ability to sell texts and influences the price. Brian Collins informed the group that publishers were developing a joint digital effort called CourseSmart that would enable publishers to provide faculty with complimentary copies in a digital format first before providing a hard copy.

Eunice Clark, Director Chaffey College Bookstore, immediate past-President of the California Assn. of College Stores (CACS), and member of the Academic Senate Taskforce presented information on the efforts of the CACS in lowering textbook Chaffey College’s taskforce on lowering textbook costs which developed guidelines, increased communication between faculty and the bookstores, increased early adoptions by 57 percent over the previous term and led to faculty working with the bookstore to buy fewer bundles. The result was that they have more used and lower-cost textbooks available for students.

 Technology-based Practices and Initiatives Hal Plotkin, President of the Board of Trustees at Foothill-De Anza CCD spoke on the value of open educational resources, which are free, high-quality digital learning materials including print-on-demand textbooks, courses, curriculum, lectures, interactive media and other materials whose copyrights have expired or that have been developed by faculty and copyrighted in a way that allows their free use. Foothill-De Anza Trustees passed a policy supporting the use of open educational resources. They have also worked to bridge the 6

digital divide by giving a computer to every student who applied to receive one by obtaining donations of outdated computers from businesses and using students in their computer refurbishing program to update them. They have also spearheaded the development of the Community College Consortium for Open Education Resources to educate faculty and administrators on the existence and development of these resources and their usefulness in reducing costs to students, as well as providing faculty with greater flexibility and freedom in choosing curriculum and textbooks. He discussed studies showing that students actually succeeded better in courses using these materials because the variety of options for learning a topic better accommodated the variety of student learning styles. He pointed out that the key is educating faculty and employees so that they are prepared for the future. He discussed Assembly Bill (AB) 577 (Ruskin), which is currently a two-year bill to expand the use of these resources in the CCCs.

Tim Calhoon discussed the CSU Digital Market Place in which the CCC is collaborating. The Digital Market Place aims to address the “digital native” student now entering college; to increase affordability through volume buying power, open source & freeware, and unbundling; to increase choice for instructors and students; to improve accessibility by increasing relevant choices and reducing litigation risk; and to improve academic effectiveness. The Digital Market Place would be a clearinghouse where institutional providers, commercial publishers and free open resource educational “learning objects” including textbooks, courses, lectures, interactive multimedia materials would be stored and made available in a modular, mix and match fashion through various search tools to faculty and students. Materials could be printed as well as used digitally. Participating institutions would develop their own unique web portal to access the information. Costs would be significantly lower for students since they would only buy the materials they need, could request short-term licenses (rentals), and could choose between a variety of materials that fit their learning styles. Faculty would benefit through ease of search and content review, the ability to choose chapters from multiple texts and to create custom textbooks, create custom bundles, to have more content options, the ability to assign acceptable alternative materials, and to easily self publish. There were also benefits for institutions as a whole. The Digital Market envisions creating some pilot projects in the next year and a half.

 Library Initiatives Jim Matthews and Dan Crump from the Statewide Academic Senate talked about libraries as the traditional place where students look for free materials, and that library reserve collections are important in helping students with the costs of textbooks. They made an appeal to increase the number of copies donated to libraries but pointed out that open hours at libraries is a problem. They were uncertain how digital copies would affect library reserves but pointed out that libraries need to be part of any discussion moving towards digital delivery.

 Legislative Initiatives Satinder Malhi, staff member for Senator Ellen Corbett, presented on her recent bill, Senate Bill (SB) 832, related to lowering textbook costs. He said they worked with CalPIRG and focused on the marketing strategies of publishers. The bill was supported by the System and was sent to the Governor but ultimately vetoed. A competing bill, AB 1548 (Solario) that 7

favored publisher interests was signed into law. Satinder stated that Senator Corbett continued to be very interested in reducing textbook costs, but was waiting to see what recommendations would come from the community colleges as well as the other systems of higher education before proceeding with any further bills on this issue.

Don Newton discussed the latest amendments related to textbooks in the federal College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 (HR 4137) which is the reauthorization bill for the Higher Education Act. The amendments would require publishers to disclose wholesale prices, the history of textbook revisions, options and prices of products/ components, and mandate an unbundled -ala carte purchase option similarly to SB 832; but would also require institutions when practical to include textbook adoption information for each class in online course catalogs. The Association of College Stores was opposed to the amendments, since the development of the college schedule and the adoption of textbooks are on very different schedules and forcing them to coincide may not be possible of may actually increase textbook costs.

Joseph Quintana talked about the willingness of the Foundation for California Community Colleges to work on collective buying of custom textbooks if they can get information about which textbooks are most commonly used.

Debra Sheldon informed participants an audit on the Cost of Textbooks in Higher Education that was requested by Senator Harmon and was approved by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. She said that the Bureau of State Audits would begin the audit in early December.

Brian Collins commented on the need to connect learning materials with outcomes and the using the most effective materials that students respond to including multimedia, so that they learn what they need to learn.

Next Steps Linda Michalowski summarized the key points from the presentations and discussions with the intent of outlining methods for moving forward. 1. As Kathleen Kaser laid out most clearly, everyone in the CCC System all have a responsibility in addressing the problem of high-cost textbooks. She said CEO’s and Trustees need to create an expectation that colleges will be responsive to this problem and will look for solutions. Students must continue to be creative and push institutions to address it. Faculty need to dialogue, to increase awareness of the problem and its potential solutions and to determine to what extent and in what areas they are able and willing to collaborate with other groups. The potential for finding solutions is enormous if faculty are given the support and resource they need to develop their own content as alternatives to textbooks that are on the market. 2. She pointed out that the issues the System is confronting from the perspective of cost can actually help to transform what institutions do and how they teach students. Although starting from cost, with digital content and delivery and open education resources, opportunities are opening to present education content to students in ways that may be significantly more 8

successful than what we are doing now. So while we look for short-term ways to lower costs, we are embarking on ways to transfer things in the future, keeping in mind that we are a long way from all of our students having access to technology and the tools that they need to access this new digital content. She pointed out that for faculty, short- and long-term solutions differ radically in their impact on academic freedom and that all of the short-term approaches discussed require more standardization of the books that are used, where as the long-term visions using digital, print-on-demand and/or open resources open up the possibility for any faculty member to design their own content from scratch or to select from a wide menu of possibilities.

Greg Granderson pointed out that the System Office would need to get involved to address the perceived or real requirement that course outline of record must include a textbook in order to be approved, since at the present most faculty and curriculum committees believe that course are required to have a textbook.

Linda agreed and said that one of the first tasks will be to look at what is in Education Code and Title 5 that constrains flexibility in this area, and then look at what the Board of Governors have authority to change and where they might need to seek legislation.

Hal Plotkin said there is nothing that requires a paper textbook. But other audience members agreed that clarification is needed.

Roe Darnell commented that for every solution discussed there were a series of obstacles that would make it difficult. He suggested that for each solution discussed, the committee should also identify barriers and what can be done to remove them whether the barrier is perceived or real, to avoid unintended consequences.

Linda suggested that the various constituent groups represented should talk with their executive associations: the CEO Board, the Academic Senate Executive Committee the CBO, CSSO and CIO executive committees, asking for immediate feedback. She pointed out that many areas involve faculty so a key task is engaging faculty in reviewing suggestions. She suggested that the Academic Senate study the suggestion that all campuses should have a textbook adoption policy; otherwise the System will have very little success in engaging faculty, especially classroom faculty from various disciplines.

An audience member suggested that there be a coordinated effort involving not only the students, but the System Office and legislators around eliminating sales tax on textbooks.

A discussion ensued about the ethics of practices of publishers providing faculty with complimentary textbook copies and their subsequent resale. Linda suggested that the Academic Senate should address what current practice is and/or needs to be.

Linda committed to posting a summary of the meeting, and all the PowerPoint presentations on the web, making the video of these proceedings available, and starting a listserv of participants. She pointed out the challenge will be to create the will to address the problem with our constituencies. We will be presenting at the joint CIO-CSSO conference in March. 9

The group scheduled another committee meeting for Friday, February 1st. Roe Darnell offered Modesto Junior College as the venue for the meeting. Linda said that all of the future meetings will allow for conference call participation.

Linda said that at the next meeting she wanted presentations from one or more faculty members who are using these new digital and open resource materials to present their course content in different ways.

She then asked the audience if they would be interested in starting to work on some issues in subcommittees. After some discussion the group decided to create subcommittees or support existing consortiums in the following areas: Collective purchasing of custom edition textbooks; Textbook adoption policies and faculty development and engagement; Regulatory and Education Code constraints related to textbook adoption; and Open educational resources and digital delivery. Troy Carter responded that the Student Senate would like to put students on any committee. Brian Collins volunteered to work on the subcommittee for collective purchasing along with Joseph Quintana and the CACS and CCC Bookstore managers. Greg Granderson agreed that the State Academic Senate Textbook Taskforce would bring back a list of potential solutions as well as obstacles that constrain faculty and that they would look at the issue of textbook adoption policies and faculty development related to reducing textbook costs. Linda Michalowski volunteered to work on regulatory and Education Code constraints along with Jim Austin, Kerry Compton and Sandra Mayo and possibly Roe Darnell. She said she would appreciate faculty participation as well. Linda asked Hal Plotkin what the System Office could do to further work on OER. He said Foothill-Deanza already has a consortium on open educational resources. He said if the goals of the group is the same, there may be room to collaborate. He suggested the two groups stay in close contact and that the consortium would put committee members on our listserve. She also asked Tim Calhoon to be kept informed of progress on the CSU Digital Marketplace.

Linda said she would provide a briefing on the meeting to the Consultation Council and asked members to look for opportunities to present at conferences and with other constituent groups about reducing textbook costs.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:00 pm. i Reference List

Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. Spring 2005. Textbook Issues: Economic Pressures and Academic Values. http://www.asccc.org/Publications/Papers/Downloads/PDFs/TextbookBookIssues2005.pdf

Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, US Department of Education. May 2007. Turn the Page: Making College Textbooks More Affordable. http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/acsfa/turnthepage.pdf.

California State University Office of the Chancellor. August 2007. Report of the CSU Textbook Affordability Taskforce: Improving Access and Reducing Costs of Textbook Content. http://www.calstate.edu/ats/textbook_affordability/documents/Textbook_Taskforce_Report.pdf.

Koch, James V. for the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, US Department of Education. September 2006. An Economic Analysis of Textbook Pricing and Textbook Markets. http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/acsfa/kochreport.pdf.

Student Public Interest Research Groups. August 2006. Textbooks for the 21st Century: A Guide to Free and Low Cost Textbooks. http://www.calpirgstudents.org/uploads/93/NS/93NSotNB_VcFp2pB9y5zAg/Textbooks_for _the_21st_Century.pdf.

Student Public Interest Research Groups. October 2006. Required Reading: A Look at the Worst Publishing Tactics at Work. http://www.calpirgstudents.org/uploads/NT/4H/NT4HHWamzsKJcHNwtabDJA/Required_ Reading.pdf.

Student Public Interest Research Groups. February 2007. Exposing the Textbook Industry: How Publishers’ Pricing Tactics Drive Up the Cost of College Textbooks. http://www.calpirgstudents.org/uploads/S9/yJ/S9yJ5JYdpwpcnEERFDDgmA/Exposing_the_Textbook _Industry.pdf.

United States Government Accountability Office. July 2005. College Textbooks: Enhanced Offerings Appear to Drive Recent Price Increases. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05806.pdf.