Following a Columbia Spectator article on the University’s seeming failure to comply with the Higher Education Opportunities Act to provide information on textbook prices during course registration, Dartmouth confirmed it does follow this stipulation, College Registrar Meredith Braz wrote in an email.
She said that her office works with academic departments and programs to comply with the HEOA regarding textbook information.
The Columbia Spectator reported on Jan. 22 that Columbia failed to comply with this portion of HEOA after analyzing the spring 2015 undergraduate course offerings. They determined that over 65 percent of courses did not display textbook information.
Dartmouth associate general counsel Kevin O’Leary said that the law states that information regarding textbooks and their prices should be provided for classes “to the maximum extent practicable.”
The College has a system in place to upload the information to the Banner Student website and therefore complies with the act, he said.
“Clearly, we are trying to comply because we have this mechanism in place where there is an opportunity for departments to upload their information to the website,” O’Leary said.
He noted that the law recognizes that implementation will not always “be perfect.”
Schools that receive federal funding must comply with the HEOA, and the Department of Education uses funding as a “stick” to make sure that schools comply, he said.
He said, however, that he thinks that if the Department of Education decided that a school was not complying to the maximum extent practical in terms of textbook information, they still would not lose their funding.
He said that to his knowledge no students have come forward with an issue regarding the College’s compliance to the Act, but if any have a problem with the level of compliance that should bring it to the attention of the department, registrar’s office or General Counsel.
Director of the Open Education for the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition Nicole Allen said that textbook information has important student financial implications.
“To faculty, a book deadline may seem arbitrary, but when they understand that it actually reduces costs for their students, allowing them to shop around and the bookstore to stock more used copies, they may be more willing to comply,” Allen said.
College director of financial aid Virginia Hazen said that textbook information falls under the responsibility of the registrar and faculty more so than the financial aid office.
Hazen said she ensures that the office budgets a sufficient amount of money each year for students to get the textbooks they need. The amount allocated for textbooks increases every year, she said.
Hazen said that last spring the financial aid office did a survey to determine how much students spend on books, and they determined from the results that the office was budgeting enough money to meet student need.
History department chair Robert Bonner said that the history department does have a mechanism to put this information on the Banner Student website. He said that history professors send an administrator information to be uploaded to the website.
This process follows the same procedure as all others concerning course information for his department, he said. Bonner said that professors who do not send their information by a certain deadline receive further prompting.
“We do everything in our power short of coming up with the reading list ourselves — only the professor can do that,” Bonner said.
He noted that there are legitimate circumstances in which a reading list would not be available.
Bonner said that he believes that for most part, faculty comply with this requirement. He noted the financial pressure that buying textbooks can have on students.
Chair of the department of psychological and brain sciences Jay Hull wrote in an email that the department does not have a policy on textbook price listings.
Yale University school of management professor Judith Chevalier said that Yale is also in full compliance with the law.
Chevalier said that the textbook portion of the HEOA may have more of an effect on professors than it does on students.
“I don’t know how many Dartmouth students, given the investment they’ve made in their education, will make a class choice based on the price of books,” Chevalier said.
She noted that the HEOA forces professors to know how much the books they are assigning cost.
“One of byproducts of act is that it raises the probability that the professor is informed when making a textbook price choice,” Chevalier said. Of seven students interviewed by The Dartmouth, five said that available textbook prices or other information had no impact on their course selection.
Katie Clayton ’18 said she doesn’t look at the textbooks for a course until after she selects classes.
Jacob Stern ’15 said that when there is no textbook information for a class he does not look for price information elsewhere.
“We’re taking so few classes and paying so much in tuition that textbook costs are minimal on top,” Stern said. “I pick my classes based on interest or what I need to take.”
Autumn Brunelle ’15 said that having information on textbooks does play a role for her in picking classes. She said, however, that she will usually borrow the textbook from someone.
“It affects my decision,” Brunelle said. “I can’t afford a $300 textbook each term.”
