The Evolution of Inclusive Access

The employee had grown up in a single-parent household and was the first in his family to attend college. As he hugged his mom goodbye at the end of move-in weekend at the University of California, Davis, she handed him an envelope. She had managed to save up to pay for his course materials.

The envelope contained $100.

But the young man had planned on majoring in aeronautical engineering. For that major, the first textbook alone would cost $215. So, he looked at the other textbooks in the store and switched to a major that used much cheaper titles.

“All the money his mom had saved for him couldn’t buy him one book,” Aaron Ochoa, store director, told the audience at the CAMEX 2020 educational session From Inclusive to Equitable Access: The How and Why Behind the UC Davis Stores Pilot.

“No students ever should have to make that choice,” he said. “You should be able to follow your dreams.”

Equitable access is designed to bring down the total cost of course materials for all students across the board, provide pricing stability from term to term, ensure financial aid will cover materials regardless of the student’s major, and guarantee access to materials from the start, Ochoa explained. In addition, with the plethora of options now on the market, equitable access allows the store to eliminate confusion for students and simplify the process of acquiring course materials.

“We’re bringing this back to our roots, everything in one place,” he said.

While most inclusive access programs are established course by course, UC Davis Stores envisioned equitable access encompassing nearly all courses—what session co-presenter Ryan Peterson, vice president general administration for Verba at VitalSource, dubbed “inclusive access to the max.” He explained full-time students would pay a flat fee of $199 per quarter (excluding the shorter summer term) to receive all of their materials by the first day of class, starting with the fall 2020 term.

“By default, materials are all digital-first,” Peterson said. Faculty still retain the right to select the materials they want for their courses, including materials they created or open resources. Materials that aren’t available in digital at all can be picked up at the bookstore, but otherwise digital is the only format used.

“We are pushing digital,” Ochoa admitted, but noted that his grade-school daughter only does homework on a Chromebook, not with a bound textbook and sheets of paper. “When her class gets to college, they won’t know what to do with a print book,” he said.

How does the store justify the same price for everybody, given that the number and type of course materials can vary widely for different classes and majors?

The answer is that equitable access is treated the same as other fees charged by the institution. Not every student uses every service to the same extent. For example, Ochoa noted, although all UC Davis students ride the bus but they all pay a fee to support the bus service.

“Just as everything else for the course is included in the tuition” that all students pay, added Peterson.

If students really don’t want to shell out for the equitable access fee, they have the choice (as required by state law) to opt out. “But students can opt out only at the program level, not the course level,” Ochoa said.

It took two years for UC Davis to reach this point because much of the work involved negotiations with the 12 largest textbook publishers, all of whom are now on board with the program. The store worked with Milliman, the world’s largest actuarial sciences firm, to crunch numbers to come up with a fee rate that would save students money overall, yet allow a reasonable profit to publishers.

Gaining student buy-in upfront was also important. The store set up a steering committee with 24 students to get their feedback. There was a lot of communication back and forth, but once students saw examples of how they would benefit from equitable access, they were fine with it.

Milliman also helped set up a means for the store and institution to account for revenue from the EA fee, since they weren’t selling an actual product.

It’s a good thing UC Davis Stores managed to get most of this in place before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, because they got an unexpected opportunity for a trial run of equitable access when the university decided to move instruction online. Suddenly the store had to get course materials to students scattered all over.

Many more details about UC Davis Stores’ equitable access program—including more background information on getting the program set up, what’s happened with the program since the CAMEX presentation, and the fast turnaround for the trial run—will be explored in an in-depth feature article in the May/June issue of The College Store magazine.