Use of Course Materials from which Faculty or Departments Profit

The following policy has been drafted by the University Senate Executive Committee and the Provost’s office.  The University Senate invites comments from faculty, staff, and students; please send to sbu.university.senate@stonybrook.edu.

Faculty members who may profit from the materials they require students to purchase should provide a brief written justification for why their text best meets the instructional goals of the course well in advance of the deadline for ordering such materials for the next semester.  The chair or their designee will review those justifications and either approve or reject them; the results of those reviews will be forwarded to the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs for further review and approval. If the chair is one of the faculty assigning their own texts, the justification should be sent directly to the Vice Provost for review. Likewise, If the material in question is a workbook or other reading that produces revenue for the whole department, the justification should be sent directly to the Vice Provost for review.

The whole process of review from the department to the provost level must be completed by the following deadlines in order to ensure faculty get their book orders in on time. Requests must be received by the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs by September 1 for the courses being held the following spring semester, and by January 1 for courses held the following fall semester. Departments should set any internal deadlines in advance of these dates to provide the chair with sufficient time for review.