About 31 percent of UC Berkeley faculty members met the Cal Student Store's Wednesday deadline to select textbooks for next semester, a jump of more than 10 percentage points from this semester's compliance rate.

The deadlines-one in the fall and one in the spring-were set more than a decade ago for professors to submit the names of textbooks they plan on using so the store can save money by buying used instead of new copies and pass these discounts on to students.

Students saved about $400,000 during the first two weeks of this semester by buying used books instead of new, said Jeff Deutsch, director of the Cal Student Store. He said that by conservative estimates, students could save twice as much if all professors submitted their selections on time.

However, only 17 to 23 percent of professors have historically complied with the deadlines. Deutsch said he was pleased with the progress.

"It's a good start. We've got a long way to go," he said.

Throughout this semester, Academic Affairs Vice President Carlo de la Cruz and ASUC Senator Tu Tran have spearheaded a publicity effort to encourage faculty to meet the textbook deadline.

Tran said he and ASUC President Roxanne Winston have also been discussing ways to raise the compliance rate with the Academic Senate, including possible incentives for faculty. In addition, the ASUC has asked many academic student groups to encourage faculty in their respective departments to comply with the deadline.

"The faculty are realizing that it is not only the bookstore that cares about this," Tran said.

Charles Upshaw, an assistant vice chancellor, said administrators have also encouraged on-time selections.

Lev Michael, an assistant linguistics professor, said he turned in his list of required reading a week before the deadline after receiving several reminders about it. One of the e-mails just before the deadline said that university officials were disappointed that more professors had not followed the deadline in the past, he said.

Professor Dennis Lieu, chair of the Academic Senate Student Affairs Committee, said he hopes to eventually raise the compliance rate to at least 80 percent. Possible reasons for low rates in the past were that professors are busy and face no consequences for missing the deadline, he said.

"There is no incentive or disincentive for getting the selections," he said.

Students said that since textbooks are costly, pressure should be put on professors to adhere to deadlines.

"They should definitely make

consequences," said freshman Amanda Lee. "It's on the professors, and if they don't meet the deadlines, the burden's on us."

Winston said faculty have the power to reduce financial strain on students.

"The cost of textbooks is something we really have relative control over, and we should be doing what we can to make this campus more affordable," she said.

Tags: TEXTBOOKS