Registrar designates classes as ‘no cost’ on Banner
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Professors will explore the use of digital resources in order to save students money on textbooks. (Emilia Michalkiewicz | The Blue & Gray Press)
by ANDRIA THEODOROU
Staff Writer
UMW will begin labeling classes with no textbook costs and other fees as “no cost” classes. This information will be accessible to students before they register for classes.
“The ‘no-cost’ class is all about students not having to pay $100 or more for textbooks for their classes for the upcoming spring 2020 semester. Student’s will not have to pay any fees for their classes’ textbooks,” said senior associate registrar Kevin Caffrey.
This designation will not require much change from what professors are already asked to do before the start of each semester. This new requirement will merely mean adding textbook information earlier on in the process and keeping all pricing information fully disclosed from the beginning.
“Every semester, department chairs are asked to submit the list of courses their department will offer the following semester. Beginning this semester, chairs were also asked to indicate which of their courses did not require students to purchase any textbooks or other course materials,” said economics professor Steve Greenlaw.
While this could influence students’ decisions to take on classes or not based on efforts to save money, the hope is that students will be more informed so they can prepare for the costs coming their way in required classes.
“This information shows up in the registration materials on Banner. Since the instructor usually chooses the textbooks for a course, they tell the department chair if their course has no textbook costs, and the chair reports it to the registrar,” said Greenlaw.
“I was asked to report if I am offering a ‘no-cost class’ for spring 2020, which I am, using scanned book materials and PDF articles via Canvas versus a traditional textbook for purchase,” said Emily Crosby, professor of communication.
“Personally, the communication faculty aims to limit the out of pocket costs for CDS [communication and digital studies] students,” said Crosby. “We are exploring various digital resources to help keep book and texts costs down, especially for COMM 205: Public Speaking.”
