Adoptions: The Importance of Submitting Them and the Instructors’ Role in Doing So

The Course Materials Department here at your UNM Bookstores is here to support the academic mission of the University by providing the materials instructors need to teach their classes effectively. We strive to sell those materials at the lowest prices we can to help our students’ textbook dollars go farther. As instructors and department coordinators, you play a crucial part in this mission by submitting course materials needs in the timeliest manner possible.

Some very important points – ones that are both critical and oft-occurring are:

• No Course Materials Required: Even if you are not using course materials, you must still report that so the course may be marked as “No Course Materials Required.”
• Placing Adoptions/Orders Early: Early adoptions are critical in helping everyone save money! First, the UNM Bookstores must return all unsold product from the current term (usually done during week 7) to make room for the next term’s incoming product. Letting us know if materials are being re-used helps the University save money because we do not have to ship it back to the vendors only to have to re-order and pay for more in-bound shipping.
• Legal Requirements: Because the University of New Mexico is an institution that receives public funds, we are required by the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008 to publish course material needs on a singular, HEOA-approved website – in this case, the UNM Gallup Bookstore webpage
• Does the Bookstore “Roll Over” adoptions from one term to another? No, we do not. We must have instructors or departments submit information each term, even if the instructor uses the same material each semester.
• Other Instructors use this book, the Bookstore will already have them, right? Incorrect! If 12 sections, with of a given course use copies of a given title but only 5 sections report this to the Bookstore – we will ONLY order enough books to cover the enrollment for 5 sections – not 12!
• My students can just go online anywhere and get their books so I don’t need to submit adoption information, right? This could not be a more inaccurate statement for a number of reasons. First, the aforementioned HEOA requirements are not met when an instructor does not submit an adoption. Second, we have a great many students who are either on 3rd Party payment plans (Veterans Affairs or an employer pays for their books) and, in these cases, those students cannot get their books anywhere else. By not turning the information in to the bookstore, it actually hurts these students because they have to wait for us to get those books into the Bookstore. Lastly, why close off an option for our students?

I encourage you to contact me via email below if you have further questions or, if you have special requirements for those books in your course, please feel free to reach out to me.

Sincerely,

Rose Adakai
Retail Store Manager
UNM Gallup Bookstore
radakait@unm.edu