Ryan Chartrand
View the CSU Board of Trustees Policy on Disability Support and Accomodations
View the Coded Memorandum AA-2006
The Academic Senate passed a resolution on Tuesday in a nearly unanimous vote to implement a six-week deadline for faculty members to inform El Corral Bookstore of the next quarter’s instructional materials.
The resolution served as a response to a demand by the office of California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed dating back to December 2004, in which Reed asked the CSUs to address the issue of instructional materials for students with disabilities. The proposed deadline would allow the university to be compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards and also let the Disability Resource Center (DRC) format instructional materials to suit students’ disabilities.
“Some students don’t read standard text,” said Trey Duffy, director of the DRC. “If we don’t know what that text is, we can’t convert it.”
The bookstore typically sends out requests to faculty members about eight weeks before the beginning of the quarter to send their planned courseware. However, professors are rarely on time with their responses.
In fall 2006, only 9 percent of the 1,250 professors turned in their textbook information on time. Over the next three months, 44 percent more responded and 45 percent did during the “month of rush.” An additional 2 percent of faculty responded after the month of rush.
“Before, there really was no policy,” said Andrew Schaffner, an associate professor of statistics. “The bookstore made the request and professors could honor it or not.”
Furthermore, professors are not obligated to order courseware through El Corral Bookstore, but they are required to inform them of their planned texts.
There are currently about 550 students on campus with permanent disabilities, but not all of them require different texts. In fall 2006, 68 students required alternate formats of texts and the DRC processed a total of 49,692 pages into other forms.
Duffy said these alternate materials are processed to be “anything from large print to Braille to various forms of audio output,” whether it be cassettes, CDs, Mp3s or text files that can be read by their computers. This process is funded by the university and requires a scanner and several student employees.
“That’s why we’re asking for the six weeks in the first place,” Duffy said. “The more time we have, the easier it is for us.”
During the senate meeting, Associated Students Inc. President Todd Maki requested that the six-week deadline be changed to eight as “a call for help on behalf of the students” to make textbooks cheaper and improve buyback rates.
Maki argued that when the bookstore knows the need for courseware in advance, the buyback prices increase and the bookstore can order more used books.
Having previously spoken with the DRC and the bookstore, Maki said both facilities would prefer the eight-week deadline, as opposed to the implemented six weeks.
“Six weeks was kind of an arbitrary number,” he said, adding that by extending the number to eight, students, the DRC and the bookstore were all at an advantage.
However, the Academic Senate did not approve the request – in fact, only six members did.
“I had hopes (it would pass),” Maki said. “Judging by the debate, they’re focused on doing their jobs the best they can. I don’t think that they don’t have students in mind, but judging by the vote.”
Maki and the ASI Board of Directors met Wednesday afternoon to discuss the matter and decided to postpone their own resolution on the matter until mid-April.
Nonetheless, there is agreement that the overall six-week deadline will improve the situation.
“Six weeks seem reasonable without being onerous to the faculty – teachers might like a little more flexibility,” Duffy said. “In a perfect world, eight weeks would be ideal.”
Schaffner echoed the sentiment.
“It will benefit the general student body to comply with the disability law,” he said.
Though the executive order passed in 2004, Duffy said it was “not until this last September that there was really direction.” The resolution must be submitted by the CSU’s June 15 deadline.
El Corral Bookstore representatives were not available for comment.