Legislation designed to reduce textbook costs for Virginia college students is poised to pass the General Assembly today.

House Bill 1478, sponsored by Del. Glenn Oder, R-Newport News, passed the Senate on Monday after passing the House of Delegates unanimously in January.

The Senate version of the bill uses slightly different language to give publishers and faculty more leeway. A proposal in the House version dictating where public university bookstore profits could go was also eliminated.

Oder said that provision was unnecessary and he characterized the rest of the changes as minor. He expects the Senate version to pass without difficulty.

"The bill still does what it was intended to do when it left the House," Oder said.

Measures requiring faculty to submit textbook lists and acknowledge prices are in both versions.

The House and Senate also approved requirements that public universities make required textbooks available to students who can't afford them and discourage professors from requiring new editions if they aren't significantly different.

The legislation passed by the Senate changed language about bundling, or packaging traditional textbooks with other learning tools.

While the original bill called for bookstores at public universities to carry alternatives to bundling, the Senate required only that faculty confirm they intend to use all parts of a bundled package.

If not, the bookstore would order individual parts of the package that the professor intends to use, provided the parts are available and the action would be cost-effective for students and the store.

But Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education at the Association of American Publishers, said the original bill's language about bundling amounted to an unconstitutional restriction of commerce. He said he expects the legislation to become law, but said it could be fought in the courts depending on how its handled by universities.

"It's so filled with generalities now that it's very difficult to discern what will happen," he said.

David Solimini is a spokesman for Virginia 21, a young-voters advocacy group that worked with Oder to come up with the original legislation.

Solimini said the Senate version cleared up concerns that some bookstore owners had about needing to purchase both bundled and unbundled textbooks. He said he is confident it will become law.

"This bill goes a long way toward fixing some of the weird imbalances in the college textbook market," he said. "In the end it's going to mean lower prices."

Hildebrand said no other states have passed such legislation and said he was surprised that a state as conservative as Virginia seemed poised to do so. He said he's particularly troubled by the pressures the bill could put on faculty.

"Is there any student or member of the legislature who would be in a position to tell the faculty what materials are best for their class?" he asked. "Any infringement on a professor's academic freedom is unconstitutional."

But Jim Lollar, president of the Faculty Senate of Virginia and a Radford University professor, said that there's no fear of the bill impinging on professors' academic freedom.

His group worked with Virginia 21 to change some of the language to give professors more leeway. He said time will tell if the changes prevent the legislation from having a real effect. But for now, students and faculty are united.