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Program to reduce student textbook costs limits choices, professors say
University faculty are pushing back against “textbook equity” initiatives that promise affordable course materials, arguing that the programs limit professors’ ability to assign physical course materials.
“Equitable Access” programs charge all students the same flat textbook fee each term, regardless of their major.
At the University of Virginia, faculty objections led university leadership to reject a proposed expansion of its Inclusive Access textbook program, according to The Cavalier Daily.
Judith Thomas, director of faculty programs at the University of Virginia Library, told The College Fix via email that the Faculty Senate began reviewing the program, called “One Access,” after learning that the UVA Bookstore was planning to implement it. A university senate committee then distributed a survey to the faculty.
“The faculty replied with significant objections to the program,” Thomas said.
“Concerns covered a range of topics: cost, equity, pedagogical impact, accessibility, privacy, and choice, i.e., the ability for students to opt out and select other formats,” Thomas told The Fix.
The concerns were also reflected in a letter from the chair of the Senate’s Academic Affairs Committee to the UVA’s vice president for business services.
“After careful review of all responses, the RTS Committee concludes that faculty do not support the One Access program as currently proposed,” the letter stated. “The concerns raised were widespread, consistent across disciplines, and often strongly stated.”
The letter stated that the faculty responses expressed “fundamental objections to the model itself.”
Thomas provided The Fix with a selection of faculty responses, in which one history professor argued that the program would create an “abusive monopoly.”
Thomas said that UVA’s senior leadership decided to discontinue the initiative “at least for now.”
University of California Davis has also faced pushback from its own faculty over similar issues, yet decided to keep its Equitable Access textbook program.
Grace Delmolino, Italian professor at UC Davis, told The California Aggie that after deliberately choosing a specific translation of a book titled “Decameron,” “Equitable Access ordered a random translation which was already free online since it was in the public domain.”
Another UC Davis professor, Tobias Menely, told The Aggie that he requires students to purchase a physical copy of the book “Paradise Lost,” although Equitable Access provides only a digital option.
Menely told The Aggie via email that the reading methods he teaches “cannot always be practiced effectively with digital texts.”
“The mandated use of digital textbooks undermines standard pedagogical practices in disciplines that teach textual analysis,” Menely said.
“Many of them are signed up for EA, but for my course they still need to purchase the book. The course simply can’t be taught with the digital editions mandated by EA,” the professor said.
However, the “Faculty FAQ” question and answer page of the UC Davis student store website states that “Faculty retain full academic freedom under Equitable Access.”
After initially acknowledging the receipt of an email, UC Davis did not respond to subsequent requests for comment.
But UC Davis isn’t the only school where faculty have raised concerns about Inclusive Access.
At the University of Tennessee, The Daily Beacon conducted a faculty survey in early 2025 in which 41.7 percent of professors said the university’s “Total Access” program has made course materials less affordable.
Further, 77.4 percent of professors believe the program has not supported “the freedom of faculty members to select high quality course materials for students,” and nearly 71 percent of respondents prefer some print materials for their course.
However, the director of VolBooks, the university’s bookstore, told The Beacon that “faculty members retain full authority over selecting the course content they wish to teach.”
“VolBooks does not dictate what faculty chooses; we only ensure affordability and access,” Brian Wright said.
In January 2024, the Association of American Publishers estimated that almost half of colleges and universities have adopted Inclusive or Equitable Access programs, Inside Higher Ed reported. A 2025 report from the Student Monitor, a consulting firm, estimated that 80 percent of colleges and universities offer access programs.
MORE: Obama-era rule could be driving students away from physical books
