AUTHOR
Senator Cooper, Adrian – Director of Student Services
SPONSORS
Senator Boreing, Brooklyn - Director of Programs and Marketing
Senator Becerra, Ruben – Director of Governmental Affairs
Senator Clark, Sierra – Director of Freshman Leadership
Senator Sherman Alexander – Director of Finance
Senator Evans, Kaitlin – Senator At-Large
Senator McDonald, Madison – Senator At-Large
S.R. 2017-2018
Date of First Reading: October 9, 2017
A Resolution –
To be entitled the “Opening the Textbook and Closing the Wallet: A Resolution to Advocate for a Texas State University-Wide Open Educational Resources Program”” which encourages Texas State University to implement a OER program on campus.
Whereas: the cost of college textbooks is often a major affordability issue for students, who take on additional loan debt to pay for textbooks, or undercut their own learning by forgoing the purchase of textbooks; and
WHEREAS: The price of Textbooks in America rose 88% in the past decade, according to the Consumer Price Index; and
WHEREAS: 65% of students surveyed across the nation do not buy textbooks because the cost is too inhibitive; and
WHEREAS: A majority of faculty members nationally agreed that textbook affordability is a major factor taken into consideration when selecting readings for their courses; and
WHEREAS: Many Texas State University Faculty are receptive to the idea decreasing the cost of learning material such as access codes and “clickers” and textbooks; and
WHEREAS: Many students, namely first generation college students, minorities, veterans, and non-traditional students are faced with a substantial uphill battle when it comes to affording a college education; therefore
WHEREAS: All students, indeed, are impacted by the unsustainable cost of college education; and
WHEREAS: There is an unsustainable dynamic, rooted in lack of incentive, working between publishers and college campuses that result in ever-increasing prices for students; and
WHEREAS: The inhibitive cost of textbooks could prolong students’ ability to purchase needed resources when required, leading to a poor performance in coursework and lower than ideal GPA on top of continuously expanding textbook costs; and
WHEREAS: The role of Student Government at Texas State University is to ease the burden for students by helping our peers navigate college life, mitigate concerns, and advocate for meaningful solutions on our campus; and
WHEREAS: Benchmarking is an important task for responsible implantation of ideas, programs, and initiatives; and
WHEREAS: Open Educational Resources (OER’s) – namely Open Textbooks are a solution to textbook affordability across the United States and Texas with OER programs in place at Trinity University, Texas Tech University, the University of Houston, as well as the State University of New York System, the University of Maryland System, the University of Missouri System and many more; and
WHEREAS: Texas State University should take special care to not lose future enrollment by falling behind the curve of textbook affordability; and
WHEREAS: Open Educational Resources are educational materials, such as textbooks, study guides, homework, are defined as freely accessible, openly licensed text, media, and other digital assets that are utilized for classroom, homework, research, and lecture purposes; and
WHEREAS: OER’s and Open Textbooks reduce the cost of entry level textbooks from a range of 90-250 dollars at Texas State to a cost of 0-20 dollars; and
WHEREAS: OER’s are credible resources that have saved students money, improved test scores, and improved classroom engagement throughout the nation; and
WHEREAS: Programs such as OpenStax at Rice University, which offers free peer-reviewed open textbooks, have saved students $155 million since 2012 by offering free, open textbooks for the highest-enrollment college courses across the country; and
WHEREAS: Open Textbooks and OER’s are written by professionals and faculty members from universities such as MIT, Stanford, and Harvard; and
WHEREAS: it is the prerogative of faculty members to select the course materials that are most appropriate for a class; and
WHEREAS: it is appropriate for faculty members to seek and consider using open educational resources (OER), including open textbooks, in their courses as long as there is no reduction in educational quality; and
WHEREAS: studies have shown that students using OER perform as well, if not better, in their classes compared to students using traditional textbooks; and
WHEREAS: Student Government members have garnered support for this initiative from the Faculty Senate, the Provost, the Vice President for Student Affairs, the Student Advisory Board for the Texas State University System Board of Regents, the Alkek Library, and the Texas State University President; and
WHEREAS: Alkek Library staff is building a bibliographical style webpage for both faculty and students to use as a resource when implementing and using OER’s and Open Textbooks into their curriculum modeled after the websites used at Texas Tech University, and Fort Hays State University in Kansas; and
BE IT Resolved: The Student Government at Texas State University supports the implementation of an OER program on the Texas State Campus; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: Faculty members teaching introductory, survey level courses should consider utilizing Open Textbooks and OER’s in their courses; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: Student Government will establish, through a forthcoming bill, a “Textbook Hero” award to be given annually to the faculty member who best embodies the efforts of textbook affordability through OER implementation; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: Faculty consider textbook affordability for students a “best practice” when selecting their materials for a course;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: Student Government calls on the administration to create a Textbook affordability committee which will focus on the implementation of OER’s on our campus; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: Student Government supports the idea of designating an employee of the Alkek Library as an OER implementation expert who can assist faculty with the implementation of Open Textbooks and resources; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That if passed, this resolution be forwarded to Student Body President Connor Clegg for further action.