                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

GOVERNING BOARD PROCEDURES; TEXTBOOK SALES AND BOOKSTORES; OPEN EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES (§ 23.1-1308)

A. No employee of a public institution of higher education shall demand or
receive any payment, loan, subscription, advance, deposit of money, services, or
anything, present or promised, as an inducement for requiring students to
purchase a specific textbook required for coursework or instruction. However,
such employee may receive (i) sample copies, instructor&#8217;s copies, or
instructional material not to be sold and (ii) royalties or other compensation
from sales of textbooks that include such instructor&#8217;s own writing or
work.

B. The governing board of each public institution of higher education shall
implement procedures for making available to students in a central location and
in a standard format on the relevant institutional website listings of textbooks
required or assigned for particular courses at the institution. The lists of
those required or assigned textbooks for each particular course shall include
the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) along with other relevant
information.

C. Public institutions of higher education maintaining a bookstore supported by
auxiliary services or operated by a private contractor shall post the listing of
such textbooks when the relevant instructor or academic department identifies
the required textbooks for order and subsequent student purchase.

D. The governing board of each public institution of higher education shall
implement policies, procedures, and guidelines that encourage efforts to
minimize the cost of textbooks for students while maintaining the quality of
education and academic freedom. The guidelines shall ensure that:

   1. Faculty textbook adoptions are made with sufficient lead time to
   university-managed or contract-managed bookstores so as to confirm
   availability of the requested materials and, when possible, ensure maximum
   availability of used textbooks;

   2. In the textbook adoption process, the intent to use all items ordered,
   particularly each individual item sold as part of a bundled package, is
   affirmatively confirmed by the faculty member before the adoption is
   finalized. If the faculty member does not intend to use each item in the
   bundled package, he shall notify the bookstore, and the bookstore shall order
   the individualized items when their procurement is cost effective for both the
   institution and students and such items are made available by the publisher;

   3. Faculty members affirmatively acknowledge the bookstore&#8217;s quoted
   retail price of textbooks selected for use in each course;

   4. Faculty members are encouraged to limit their use of new edition textbooks
   when previous editions do not significantly differ in a substantive way as
   determined by the appropriate faculty member; and

   5. Provisions address the availability of required textbooks to students
   otherwise unable to afford the cost.

E. The governing board of each public institution of higher education shall
implement guidelines for the adoption and use of low-cost and no-cost open
educational resources in courses offered at such institution. Such guidelines
may include provisions for low-cost commercially published materials.

F. The registrar or another appropriate employee of each public institution of
higher education shall identify conspicuously in the online course catalogue or
registration system, as soon as practicable after the necessary information
becomes available, each course for which the instructor exclusively uses no-cost
course materials or low-cost course materials.

G. No funds provided for financial aid from university bookstore revenue shall
be counted in the calculation for state appropriations for student financial
aid.

HISTORY: 2005, c. 530, § 23-4.3:1; 2006, c. 561; 2016, c. 588; 2018, c. 752;
2019, c. 590.