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Charter Oak reports low opt‑out for textbook 'book bundle' pilot; faculty and other campuses voice concerns
Summary
Charter Oak’s inclusive-access pilot showed an 8.24% opt-out in fall and an estimated 27% cost reduction versus the prior bookstore agreement; low survey response rates and faculty criticism — including petitions at other campuses — underscored uneven reception across the system.
Charter Oak State College officials told the Board of Regents that their pilot inclusive-access program — described locally as a “book bundle” — produced a low opt-out rate and early indications of cost savings, but faculty and student leaders from other campuses urged caution and said results do not generalize across the system.
President Klonowski introduced the pilot and Provost David Ferrera presented survey and operational data. Ferrera said Charter Oak launched the book-bundle pilot in fall 2024 and continued in spring 2025. He reported an opt-out rate of about 8.24% in the fall and a low survey response rate (roughly 5.8%). Ferrera said about two-thirds of responding students reported they felt adequately informed about the program and that some students perceived a 27% cost savings compared with the prior bookstore agreement. He also said a per-course cost worked out in their accounting to about $53.25 when a campus fee was applied.
Ferrera described benefits students cited: automatic loading of course materials into Blackboard, immediate access at term start, searchability and accessibility features in digital materials. Reported challenges included a minority preference for printed textbooks, early-semester link or access glitches in the pilot’s first days, and some navigation problems with the opt-out process. Ferrera told regents that many technical issues experienced in fall were resolved by spring and that the campus is working with Barnes & Noble to refine communications and opt-out operations.
The presentation prompted questions. Regent Balducci and others said they had favored opt‑in models and pressed the college on opt-out awareness and response rates. Ferrera said some publishers offer programmatic materials only under an opt‑out model, which limits colleges’ ability to make the program opt‑in.
Multiple public commenters and faculty spoke against automatic billing for course materials. Nicholas Simon and research by Eastern faculty were cited as showing that, at Eastern Connecticut State University, automatic billing could increase student costs and that a majority of Eastern courses did not require publisher course materials in spring 2024. Faculty speakers and the Eastern chapter of the AAUP said they had circulated petitions and passed resolutions opposing automatic textbook billing. Southern and Central faculty leaders also urged the board to consider differences in student populations — Charter Oak’s older, largely online cohort differs from students at regional campuses — before generalizing results.
Why this matters: Inclusive-access pilots can lower costs and ensure timely access for some students but can also limit choice and raise concerns about publisher leverage, faculty input and equity. Charter Oak’s leadership said they will return with spring benchmarking data in the summer so the system can compare fall and spring metrics and assess whether to expand the model.
The presentation was for information; regents asked for further comparative data and for documentation of workload and operational impacts for campuses considering similar programs.
