By ARIA JONES
@AriaJonesETC

The districtwide plan to raise tuition to cover the cost of textbooks has been delayed by one year.
The proposal would raise the cost of tuition by $20 per credit hour in exchange for textbooks and class materials for students on the first day of class. It was to be fully implemented across all Dallas County Community College District campuses by this fall with a pilot beginning this summer.
The pilot is now expected to begin in summer 2020 with full implementation beginning in fall 2020 according to District Chief Financial Officer John Robertson.
“Our timeline was really too aggressive to begin with,” he said. “Part of that is, we started doing our investigation into ‘how do we do this’ and ‘how do we do that.’ [After] listening to the steering committee and the faculty representatives we have, we realized there was more work to do than what we originally planned.”
Robertson said he will go before the DCCCD board in April to give them a quick update but work on the project will not be stopped.
He said this will give him time to enlist faculty to help with the planning.
“I have to have faculty involved in this because they’re the ones that can make this successful, not me,” he said. “It is up to them and we have so many faculty here that are very concerned like I am, about how much students are paying for learning materials.”
He said he wants the project to be successful on day one. This will give the district time to address unique situations in specific programs, provide training on digital materials and lower the overall cost of textbooks.
“We really just think it’s better to take a structured approach to this over time and not just push it down people’s throats,” he said.
https://eastfieldnews.com/2018/12/04/district-considers-raising-tuition-for-shared-textbook-costs/