Campus Bookstores Transition

May 30, 2024

Dear instructors and unit leads,

We’re writing today to share an update on our campus store operations that will have an impact on your course material adoptions. Please review this email carefully for information about this change and instructions for submitting course materials adoptions.

UWM has partnered with Follett Higher Education, a leading provider of educational products and services, for our campus bookstore operations.

Our contract with eCampus expires this summer. After a lengthy bidding process involving numerous campus offices, and UWM and UW-System Purchasing, Follett was selected to be our new vendor for the virtual textbook/course materials store, running the physical PantherShop in the union, and managing the online shop as well.

This will create a significant partnership between UWM and Follett, and we're excited about the improvements that will bring for both faculty and students –  though we understand it will require some initial adjustments as we prepare for both Summer and Fall terms.

PantherShopUWM is now live. Messages have gone to students and the link from PAWS/course schedule is working, so students may now order course materials for Summer and Fall 2024 through Follett.

Prior course materials adoptions for Summer and Fall that were sent to eCampus have already been transferred to Follet. So, if you submitted adoptions to eCampus for Summer and/or Fall you needn’t take further action for those terms. eCampus turned off their adoption portal on the morning of May 28.

Instructors who have not yet placed adoptions for Summer or Fall will now do so via Follett. We are asking for your course materials adoptions to be submitted as soon as possible, not only because early adoptions allow Follett to source more affordable options, but to also allow the Accessibility Resource Center sufficient time to honor student requests for alternative formats.  

Adoption Instructions are below, along with a more detailed message from the ARC on the importance of early adoptions.

Starting today: To submit adoptions for Summer or Fall 2024 course materials, use this portal: UWM Online Course Materials Adoptions, or go to the website PantherShopUWM and scroll down to the “Online Adoptions” link under the Resources column to access. 

When creating your profile, the bookstore supplied password is 2356 and your role is approver.

A how-to PDF is available below:

Stay tuned for more information on transition details. Thank you for your continued dedication to teaching and learning at UWM.

In ARC, we believe that accessibility for students is a collaborative process between our department, the student, and the instructor. As you consider textbooks and curriculum for your fall courses, we ask that you keep a few important notes in mind.

The Accessibility Resource Center provides alternative formats of textbooks and curriculum for students approved for this accommodation. In the past, searching for and acquiring alternative text has been a smooth and fairly quick process, as we worked from a few well-curated resources. However, one of our main and most important go-to resources closed its internet doors unexpectedly at the end of Spring 2024, affecting UWM’s searches as well as those of many other universities across the country.

Therefore, we now anticipate longer than usual times between a student’s initial request for alternative formats of course textbooks and/or required readings and the delivery of the accessible text.

Please order and/or provide course materials that are already accessible.

If this is not possible, please provide information on course reading materials and syllabus information with a schedule of readings as early as possible. This will allow ARC staff to begin the search well before any required readings are due.

If you have questions regarding accessible content you may use on your Canvas course site, please reach out to CETL or review the Universal Design Checklist.

Wisconsin Act 124 requires instructional materials to be accessible for students with disabilities. 

"Alternative format" means Braille, large print texts, audio recordings created with the use of text-to-speech technology, electronic formats used with screen reader devices or other assistive technology, or digital talking books that are required by a student with a disability to make instructional material accessible to the student.

Read more in Section 1 of the Act on “Postsecondary education; accessible instructional material for students with disabilities.”

We appreciate your time and attention to this important aspect of learning for students with disabilities.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
2310 E. Hartford Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53211