Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 54.11
Liaison Sarah Williams
Submission Date Feb. 7, 2020

STARS v2.2

Whitman College
IN-41: Textbook Affordability

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.25 / 0.50 Elissa Brown
Campus Sustainability Coordinator
Office of Sustainability, Physical Plant Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution host a peer-to-peer textbook exchange program, textbook lending library, or alternate textbook project?:
Yes

A brief description of the textbook exchange program, textbook lending library, or alternate textbook project:
An exchange program has been set up in Glover Austin Center where students have been able to borrow books for General Studies. In addition, the Bookstore donates books that are still used but have been left by students at buyback or given to the bookstore to donate.

An increasing number of courses are designed using materials available through Cleo, department lending libraries (History, Hispanic Studies) and textbooks written by professors (Mathematics).  In addition, Sociology (Prof. Janning) has adopted an online option that costs the students one dollar a chapter. Among the departments who have increased open access are Art History and Astronomy. Professors in Economics, Mathematics and Sociology have chosen to use recently out-of-print editions for courses, reducing students costs by as much as 85%.

Does the institution provide incentives for academic staff that explicitly encourage the authorship, peer review, and/or adoption of open access textbooks?:
No

A brief description of the incentives to encourage the authorship, peer review, and/or adoption of open access textbooks:
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If yes to either of the above, provide:

Website URL where information about the textbook affordability incentives is available:

Optional Fields

Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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