DE Assistant Politics Editor

A resolution requiring peer review and other professional considerations of faculty-written textbooks passed in November’s SIUC Faculty Senate meeting will be on hold for a couple more weeks during a review by SIUC officials, University administrators say.

According to Margaret Winters, vice-chancellor of Academic Affairs, a revised resolution of faculty-written textbooks passed by the senate, states that if a textbook is published by a publisher and has been reviewed and approved by other faculty members, a professor can automatically use it in teaching. If the book does not meet the criteria, the instructor must get permission from the chair of his/her department to use the book.

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The resolution is currently under review by a representative of Academic Affairs, SIU President Ted Sanders said. Once the policy is reviewed, Sanders said he will decide whether or not to approve it.

The proposal which has come up is relevant to the Carbondale campus, not the Edwardsville campus, Sanders said. It would change the approval process as to when the faculty can and cannot use their own textbooks. It is currently under discussion. Vice-President (John) Haller is looking more carefully into that issue.

The old policy requires faculty who write their own textbook to fill out a form and receive approval through Academic Affairs, Winters said.

Haller said it was not known when the new policy would be approved by Sanders. Until then, the old policy is still in effect until issues are resolved that may or may not exist, Haller said.

It’s really premature to talk about the policy since it is undergoing discussion, Haller said.

When the new policy is in place, it’s going to simplify things, Winters said.

Leslie Sheets, vice-president of the faculty senate, said the group was concerned about the faculty using a textbook that is not used outside of the University.

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Sheets said if a professor’s book is used in other colleges throughout the country, he said he did not think they would have to discontinue using that professor’s text.

Sheets said he has co-authored his own book and has been using it about 10 years.