Multi-section most likely means that there are several different sections of the same course running simultaneously. In addition, there are probably different professors teaching these sections.

I can understand part of the argument here - it would be important to maintain consistency among the different sections, so that students who take the class from Professor A learn basically the same material as students who take Professor B. That being said, the material presented in a low-level class like this hasn't changed in a long time, so any book should suffice.