The purpose of this chapter is to give students more choices for purchasing educational materials and to encourage faculty and staff to work closely with bookstores and publishers to implement the least costly option without sacrificing educational content.

For the purposes of this chapter, the following words and phrases mean:

(1) "Course materials." Any supplies or texts required or recommended by faculty or staff for a given course. Course materials may include, but are not limited to, texts, workbooks, study guides, CD-ROMs, art supplies, and other ancillary materials.

(2) "Bundle." A group of course materials joined together by packaging or required to be purchased as an indivisible unit.

(1) The affiliated bookstore for Western Washington University is the Western Associated Students (AS) Bookstore. The AS Bookstore will:

(a) Provide students the option of purchasing course materials that are unbundled whenever possible;

(b) Disclose to faculty and students the retail costs of textbooks on a per book and per course basis and such information will be made publicly available;

(c) Disclose publicly, when such information is available, how new editions vary from previous editions; and

(d) Actively promote and publicize book buy-back programs.

(2) To provide cost savings to students for course materials, Western faculty and staff members are required to consider the least costly option for such materials, including that they:

(a) Are encouraged to consider adopting the least expensive edition of course materials available when educational content is comparable.

(b) Are encouraged to work closely with publishers and the AS Bookstore to create bundles and packages if they provide a cost savings to students.