UC Works Toward Cheaper Textbooks

Cheaper textbooks could be in the cards as the Undergraduate Council (UC) passed legislation yesterday concerning the future of Crimson Reading—the student-run Web site that allows undergraduates to compare prices of course reading material.

The council also reached decisions on spring funding for freshman parties, house committees, and student groups.

With a full docket, the meeting proceeded despite the initial absence of UC Vice President Matthew L. Sundquist ’09, who e-mailed the UC open list a few minutes before the meeting convened to report that he had been “locked into a very small hallway” in the Hilles basement.

“I can’t get out—the door is locked and I’m stuck,” Sundquist’s e-mail read. “My phone also just died. I hope to see you all in a few minutes. It’s also kind of cold and my laptop is dying as well.”

By the time Sundquist arrived, the committee had already unanimously approved legislation providing for spring semester freshman party grants.

The council next considered a bill calling for the approval of the Harvard College Book Information System (HCBIS)—a scheme for the collection of textbook ISBN numbers. The bill’s co-sponsor Tom D. Hadfield ’08 identified it as a means of assuring the survival of the Crimson Reading site.

ISBN collection has long been an issue for Hadfield, a Crimson Reading co-founder who spent much of August in the Coop copying down the 10-digit numbers which serve as IDs for textbooks and without which, he said, the Web site cannot be run.

When he attempted to have the UC collect the numbers in January, the Coop banned the council members from copying down the numbers, Hadfield said.

HCBIS, according to the UC legislation, is a way to obtain the necessary ISBN information for required course textbooks without relying on the Coop to amass them in advance.

The system would include four data collection strategies: “self-reporting” allowing instructors to add information through an HCBIS account; “bulk upload,” permitting departments to upload textbook information for multiple courses at once; “data mining from syllabi,” requiring the manual input of information from course syllabi; and simple student reporting.

The legislation also presents scenarios involving varying levels of Coop participation and other campus institutions, such as the library.

“The Coop recognized that we’re going to do this with or without them, but we’re keen to working in partnership with them,” Hadfield said.

The meeting also approved record grants for the House Committees (HoCo), with each of the 12 receiving $4,700 in spring funding—$200 more than last year.

Some debate ensued over the allotment of a $1,500 grant to the residents of Dudley Cooperative, which is not counted in the number of HoCos.

In particular, the pointed grumbling of Mather representative Matthew R. Greenfield ’08 about the allegedly inflated per capita funding for Dudley House residents forced Joshua G. Allen ’09 to ask Petersen to call the meeting to order.

Ruling on Dudley funding was subsequently recommitted to the Financial Committee, to be considered by the UC again in two weeks.

—Staff writer Christian B. Flow can be reached at cflow@fas.harvard.edu.