Textbook fees, licenses on agenda for INPIRG reps

INPIRG is trying to reduce textbook fees.

The student-directed advocacy nonprofit organization is waging a campaign for open-access textbooks, books that are published with an open-copyright license and distributed to the public at no cost.

On Tuesday it asked the Bloomington Faculty Council to think about publishing more textbooks under an open-copyright license to lower textbook costs for students.

“The fact that, as a University, we should at least be open to the idea of open-access textbooks is certainly a good one,” Cassidy Sugimoto, co-chair of the educational policies committee, said.

An open copyright license means licensees are unlimited and a licenser can grant extra permissions to licensees.

Textbook costs are equivalent to 26 percent of tuition at a 4-year public college and 72 percent of tuition at community colleges.

Senior Riley Hall, a member of INPIRG, presented their case to the meeting.

“These books are created by faculty, colleges or publishers and contain comparable material to any other kind of traditional text,” Hall said.

They cost about 80 percent less than traditional textbooks on average, he said.

“Basically, you can put your information in as a professor, and add things to make it specific to your lesson,” freshman Eleanor Spolyar said during the presentation.

These books are still peer reviewed by experts in the subject matter, and can still be printed and sold in University bookstores for a small printing fee, Hall said.

“I’ve had a professor here and there that was ... not really that thrilled with some of the aspects of the textbook from which they were teaching,” Hall said. “So, that increased teacher-text relationship that we get from this, I think, will allow for a much better educational experience.”

The textbook proposal is part of INPIRG’s Make Textbooks Affordable campaign.

“A college degree must remain within reach for families of modest means, and affordable over the long term for the borrowers and parents in repayment,” the INPIRG website states. “In response, USPIRG works to increase student grant aid, make debt levels more manageable, and protect students as consumers from practices that contribute to educational debt.”

More than 3,000 professors across the United States are using open-access textbooks, according to the INPIRG fact sheet.

This includes the University of Maryland and University of Illinois, Spolyar said.
IUSA and the Association of Big Ten students have passed resolutions in support of open-access textbooks, according to a INPIRG press release Wednesday.

“The truth is that open-access is coming, and it ain’t slow,” Sugimoto said. “And it’ll be coming for journal publications, but also for textbooks, too.”

Follow reporter Kathrine Schulze on Twitter @KathrineSchulze.