Textbook Affordability Program Saves Students Nearly $800,000

Bruin Notes

For the past two years, the university鈥檚 library has worked with faculty to save students $797,893 in textbook costs. It鈥檚 happened in two ways: through the Open Textbook Initiative, which provides incentives for faculty to use textbooks available for free in the Open Textbook Library, and by employing the use of e-books whenever possible.

Several faculty members have replaced expensive publisher textbooks with open textbooks, or even authored their own. Adult Degree Program professor Jennie Harrop鈥檚 writing textbook is now part of the Open Textbook Library, and an open textbook by Portland Seminary鈥檚 Nijay Gupta and some of his graduate students will be published this summer. A third faculty-authored open textbook is scheduled for release in the fall. In 2017-18 alone, use of open textbooks reduced student costs by $256,231 鈥� up from $118,855 in the program鈥檚 first year.

In addition, students saved another $226,660 by finding their required readings in the library鈥檚 e-book collection, with no limits on use. That improved upon the prior year鈥檚 total of $196,147 in savings. By this fall, the Textbook Affordability Program will surpass $1 million in student savings as the initiative enters its third year.