The Associated Students of the University of Montana

Associated Students of The University of Montana
University Center - Suite 105
Missoula, MT 59812-0072
Phone (406) 243-2451
December 3, 2008
Provost Royce Engstrom
The University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812
Provost Engstrom,
Earlier this semester, students from The Association of Disabled Students of The University of Montana approached ASUM for help regarding textbook orders at the University of Montana Bookstore. The Bookstore struggles each semester with late textbook orders from faculty, which prevent many students from purchasing and receiving books in time for the start of classes. This problem is especially pronounced for visually-impaired students. These students rely on electronic versions of texts, but those texts can only be scanned and put into an electronic format after the books arrive at the Bookstore. The process takes about three weeks, and by this time, many visually-impaired students are at least three weeks behind in readings, an unfortunate situation that puts them at a severe disadvantage.
While we realize there may be other circumstances which prevent faculty from requesting textbook orders in a timely manner, we feel that it is important to make the campus community aware of the detrimental effect late textbook orders have on students’ academic performance. Therefore, ASUM passed a resolution unanimously on December 3, 2008 encouraging faculty to consider the various delays between when an order is placed and when students are actually able to utilize the text. We hope that you would be willing to help communicate this issue and ASUM’s stance to faculty across campus.
Please see the attached resolution and contact us with any questions.
Sincerely,
Trevor HunterSiri Smillie
ASUM PresidentASUM Vice President
The University of MontanaThe University of Montana
University Center Suite 105University Suite 105
Missoula, Montana 59812Missoula, MT 59812
(406)-243-2038 (406)-243-2037

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The Associated Students of the University of Montana

Resolution Regarding Faculty Ordering Textbooks Early

December 3, 2008

SB 08/09 Bill Number 28

Authored by Senator BonggochTangjaipak

Sponsored by Senator Yan To Cheung

Whereas, many problems arise when the UM Bookstore does not have an adequate amount of textbooks for students when school starts;

Whereas, problems often come from faculty who put in late textbook orders to the UM Bookstore;

Whereas, as textbooks generally take 3 weeks to get scanned and ready to be used by visually-impaired students and late textbook orders especially inconvenience disabled students;

Whereas, students cannot sell certain textbooks back to the UM Bookstore during buyback period if orders of these textbooks came late from faculty;

Whereas, textbook delays have a negative impact on students’ class preparations;

Therefore, Let It Be Resolved that ASUM encourages faculty to order textbooks as early as possible, keeping in mind the delay for scanning.