As announced last year, textbooks must be ordered by the start of the UI Early Registration period of the following session or semester.

• Early registration for Winter 2018 and Spring 2019 begins on Monday, November 5.

As you know, the reason for this early deadline is that the University of Iowa must comply with the federal legislation that requires textbook information for a course to be available through the institution’s online course schedule before students register for the session or semester that the books will be used.  

Institutions must comply to the “maximum extent practicable.”* The law indicates that institutions (rather than each individual or department) may define more specifically what is considered “practicable” and when “to be determined” may be used on the course schedule in place of specific textbook information.

At the University of Iowa, “to be determined” may be used in these circumstances:

• If an instructor has not yet been hired
• If the instructor has not yet been assigned to a course
• If the course is new and still under development
• If the textbook is new and still under development 

Departments should use these exceptions judiciously and should submit the bulk of orders by the deadline. 

Thank you.

*Visit the HEO Act for more details concerning the legislation (scroll to down to this tag [Page 122 STAT. 3108]).