Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 58.23
Liaison Sarah Williams
Submission Date July 24, 2023

STARS v2.2

Whitman College
IN-41: Textbook Affordability

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.25 / 0.50 Sarah Williams
Sustainability Manager
Office of Sustainability, Facilities 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). Among the departments who have increased open access are Art History and Astronomy. Professors in Economics, Mathematics and Sociology chose 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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Website URL where information about the textbook affordability incentives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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