Dear Faculty and Staff,
Recently, WKU’s Student Government Association initiated conversations with us regarding an option to make textbooks more affordable to fellow Hilltoppers, and we are happy to announce an update on those talks. Through our partnership with Barnes & Noble College, Western Kentucky University is moving to a new course material model that will reduce the cost of materials for all students and help ensure they have their materials across all courses prior to the first day of class.
This new model, called the Big Red Backpack, will make accessing textbooks at the start of fall 2022, quicker, easier, and cheaper.
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Student Experience: All students taking courses will receive their course materials by the first day of class at a cost of $24/credit hour applied to their bill. Students do have the ability to opt out of the program if they desire. The WKU Store will package each student’s physical books, and digital materials will be delivered directly through Blackboard.
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Faculty Experience: The Big Red Backpack program provides full faculty freedom in selecting the right print or digital material for your course. All required course materials, from all publishers, in your preferred format are included in the program. There are no restrictions in the course materials you select for your course.* Excluded materials include adopted school supplies, kits, uniforms, art supplies, calculators, non-required course material, or items deemed not a textbook. Faculty will help drive affordability by selecting relevant course material that will be required for their courses and meeting the course material adoption deadline on April 15.
