Dear Colleagues,
We all share a concern about reducing the high cost of course materials and ensuring those materials are accessible by our students. Please read on for information regarding faculty responsibilities and upcoming deadlines for submitting assigned course books and readers. The deadlines to submit textbook adoption information for Summer 2024 are March 18, 2024 (affordability deadline) and April 1, 2024 (accommodation deadline).
Affordability
The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) has provisions to reduce costs to students while supporting the faculty’s ability to select high-quality course materials. The HEOA requires that course textbook information be made available to students before they enroll in a course. UC Berkeley complies with the HEOA by asking faculty to submit textbook orders to the Cal Student Store—even in cases where faculty place orders with independent bookstores—so the textbooks can be listed in the course catalog. Submitting book lists (regardless of where books were ordered) also allows the Cal Student Store to buy back textbooks at the end of the semester and offer them at a discount in the future.
Accessibility
Each faculty member has the responsibility to identify instructional materials for their courses far enough in advance of the semester so that the Disabled Students’ Program has adequate time to convert them into an accessible format (e.g., Braille, large print, or digital/electronic). Timely submission of textbook adoption enables the University to meet its legal requirement to provide students with disabilities an equal educational opportunity to learn course subject matter, to participate actively in classroom discussions, and to meet assignment deadlines.
Important Deadlines
Below are the deadlines for faculty to submit textbook adoptions for upcoming terms. To ensure a record of your adoption for purposes of accommodation, please submit textbook information using the custom link emailed to the instructor of record by the Cal Student Store.
Summer 2024
Affordability Deadline: March 18, 2024*
Accommodation Deadline: April 1, 2024**
Fall 2024
Affordability Deadline: April 22, 2024*
Accommodation Deadline: July 3, 2024**
Spring 2025
Affordability Deadline: October TBD*
Accommodation Deadline: December 3, 2024**
* HEOA affordability deadline to submit textbook adoptions to the Cal Student Store.
**Seven-week accommodation deadline by which textbooks and readers should be adopted/available for purposes of accommodating students with disabilities.
Tips for Reducing Costs and Increasing Accessibility
There are many ways to reduce costs and ensure accessibility, and you and your colleagues have helped in a variety of ways. We hope you continue to:
- Use common textbooks, where possible, for related courses or keep the same text for two or more years.
- Submit your course lists for required books, articles, and films and request the Library provide those materials as course e-reserves. The priority deadline for summer course e-reserves requests is March 29, 2024.
- Create online readers that combine open educational resources with electronic resources licensed by the Library.
- Use electronic and open content solutions available to students at low or no cost.
- Meet textbook adoption deadlines to allow timely course book availability and low-cost book options.
- Work with the Disabled Students’ Program to provide students with print disabilities a copy of the course textbook/reader in an accessible format (note: for conversion purposes, it is important that course-reader text be clean and legible).
- Meet textbook/reader identification deadlines to allow timely conversion and thus equal educational opportunity for students with print disabilities.
For more information on instructor accessibility responsibilities for faculty, visit the Disabled Student's Program website. For assistance in submitting textbook orders to the Cal Student Store, email text@berkeley.edu or call (510) 229-4703.
Thank you for your assistance in this important matter and for all that you are doing to support our students and our campus.
Sincerely,
Oliver M. O’Reilly
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
This message was sent to all UC Berkeley instructors.