Dive Brief:
- The math department at California State University at Fullerton reprimanded professor Alain Bourget for assigning a $75 textbook and free online materials instead of the $180 textbook chosen by the department for a multisection math course.
- Inside Higher Ed reports that Bourget is challenging the reprimand on grounds of academic freedom in a case being closely watching by the open educational resources community, which sees it as a sign that it needs to create alternatives to traditional textbook selection methods as well as the textbooks themselves.
- The department, too, is claiming academic freedom, saying the policy of letting departments choose multisection texts is aligned with the AAUP’s 2013 Statement on the Freedom to Teach.
Dive Insight:
The textbook in question was co-authored by the chairman and vice chairman of the Fullerton mathematics department. Differential Equations and Linear Algebra is in its third edition, with a fourth ready for publication, keeping the price high for students by restricting the number of used copies of assigned textbooks to a small portion of the market. Other top institutions also assign the textbook, and neither co-author took part in the decision to deny Bourget’s request to assign other texts.
But the policy of requiring a more expensive textbook when an instructor determines an alternative meets all the same course objectives is somewhat surprising at a time when many colleges are doing everything they can to reduce textbook costs for students.