The De Anza College Academic Senate has spent the past two years debating a textbook policy to provide instructors with a set of recommendations on ordering texts for their courses. The end may finally be in sight.
At the end of the 2002-2003 academic year, the Academic Senate created a subcommittee to draft a De Anza College textbook policy. Prior to this, De Anza only followed the district-wide policy, which prevented faculty from profiting from district-used materials they have authored.
Math instructor Karl Schaffer lobbied for the creation of a textbook policy to address issues of academic freedom and conflicts of interest.
In a telephone interview with La Voz, Schaffer said he was concerned with restrictive textbook policies in the math department.
Last fall, Schaffer said the department chose selected textbooks for all but six of De Anza’s 154 math sections.
"The two areas where discussion has been heated deal with academic freedom and conflicts of interest," Schaffer said. "Faculty who sell [their own] textbooks have clear conflicts of interest."
In fall of 2004, the subcommittee brought their recommendations to the executive committee, and formal drafting of the policy began.
"I hope the senate finalizes it before the end of this academic year," said Dan Mitchell, President of the Academic Senate.
Mitchell explained that the textbook policy was not a "legislative, imperative kind of thing." Instead, it will serve as a basis for future policy.
"You have to get people to decide on what principles they agree to," Mitchell said.
Creating an "implementation policy" would be the next step after the textbook policy is finalized, Mitchell said. It would specifically define the procedures instructors would follow when selecting texts.
"We don’t want you to pay a little bit of money for a textbook that’s worthless, nor would we want you to pay too much for one that is good." Mitchell said.