Spring 2023; Resolution Number 13.01
Whereas, Resolution 17.05 F22 Adopt Student Senate for California Community Colleges Low-Cost Recommendation[1] encourages local academic senates to adopt $30 or less as their locally established cost threshold that must not be exceeded for a course to be considered low-cost for reporting purposes and designation in the class schedule;
Whereas, Establishing a low-cost definition is a local determination, yet a single meaning of low-cost is necessary when students are provided the opportunity to select courses from different colleges, since various definitions of low-cost at different institutions may be confusing and even misleading for students;
Whereas, The California Virtual Campus Exchange’s online Course Finder enables students to access online courses across the state and both designates when a section is Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) with a symbol and enables students to limit their search to only those sections that are ZTC; and
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has encouraged colleges to implement a mechanism for identifying course sections that employ low-cost course materials and recognizes that although reducing costs to zero may not be immediately possible, efforts to substantially decrease the costs of course materials should be recognized[2];
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges request that the California Virtual Campus (CVC) add a Low Textbook Cost (LTC) symbol to recognize those sections that have a cost of textbooks and supplemental resources that do not exceed $30 and include the LTC symbol in the search feature in the CVC’s online Course Finder.
[1] Resolution F22 17.05 Adopt Student Senate for California Community Colleges Low-Cost Recommendations: https://asccc.org/resolutions/adopt-student-senate-california-community-colleges-low-cost-recommendation.
[2] Resolution F20 09.01 Recommendations for the Implementation of Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Designation in Course Schedules: https://asccc.org/resolutions/recommendations-implementation-zero-textbook-cost-ztc-designation-course-schedules.