The deans of Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and of its undergraduate college have asked professors to take steps to cut students’ textbook costs, by putting required reading online and by trying to assign the same books in successive years, to increase their resale value, according to today’s Boston Globe. The deans’ request, expressed in an e-mail message to the faculty last week, does not carry a mandate, like that of measures recently passed by the University of North Carolina regents. —Andrew Mytelka