Some faculty members are making recommendations for university professors to curb the burdening price of textbooks on students.

Because the price of textbooks continues to increase -- most students spend between $450 and $600 for textbooks each semester -- some members of the University Faculty Senate said professors should take students' budgets into consideration when assigning textbooks.

"Professors must find the best value and not only the best textbook," Senate Committee Chair on University Planning Daniel Hagen said.

"We professors are often not sensitive when it comes to student spending," Hagen added.

Senate members discussed ways of reducing textbook costs for students and possible reasons for price increases at Tuesday's meeting.

According to the Senate's agenda, two of the reasons for an increasing price burden on students are customized textbooks and textbook packages, which students are unable to sell back.

Jeff Markowitz (junior-biobehavioral health) said he sent letters to the deans of all the colleges to inform them about the concerns students have about high textbook prices.

"Because college tuition is so high right now, we hope that faculty will help keep textbook prices low," Markowitz said.

"Things are still up in the air, but the situation has been discussed in smaller faculty meetings, which I hope will have a lasting impact," he added.

Some faculty members at Tuesday's senate meeting also discussed creating a web advisory group to redesign Penn State's home Web site.

Members said they hope to make the site more visually appealing and easier to navigate.

"The admissions Web sites have recently undergone a great alteration, and worked very aggressively to make the Web site unique and consistent throughout," Smith said.

"The discussion was about how we could take the look and spread it throughout the Penn State Web site," Smith added.

Director of Communications and Customer Services Pat Smith said the Faculty Senate has looked at Penn State's resources to see how the Web site is visually and structurally unified and how it can be improved.

Debora Cheney, chair of the Commission for Adult Learners, said Penn State should gear the Web site toward adult learners as well.

"They don't look like the rest of us, so when they have pictures of kids at the football games and on the HUB-Robeson Center lawn, adult learners do not feel included," she said.