(A) General principles:
(1) Cleveland state university respects the academic freedom of faculty to select the textbooks they judge to be most appropriate for their courses and most effective for their students' education.
(2) Because acquiring textbooks requires an investment of time and/or money from students, faculty should make sure that the textbooks they select will be used substantially as learning resources in their courses.
(3) Cleveland state university believes that cost should be a factor for faculty as they consider textbooks for selection. Faculty should, to the best of their ability, assess whether the cost of the textbook they are considering is appropriate for their discipline and the course subject. When textbooks are comparable in quality but differ substantially in cost, the university recommends that the faculty member select the less-costly textbook.
(4) Cleveland state university recommends that faculty consider open-access textbooks, if they are appropriate for the faculty member's discipline and the course subject.
(B) Specific policies:
(1) Each academic unit (department or school, as appropriate) will develop unit-specific guidelines and procedures for textbook selection. These guidelines and procedures will be subject to review by each college's faculty affairs committee, and ultimately subject to oversight by the university faculty affairs committee and faculty senate.
(2) If a faculty member elects to select a textbook for which the faculty member is an author, that selection will be reviewed by the relevant governance procedure of their academic unit (as defined in paragraph (B)(1) of this rule) to ensure appropriate oversight.