Panel discusses how to reduce the dizzying cost of textbooks for California college students

BY EMMA GALLEGOS
EdSource Education Reporter

California’s public institutions of higher education have launched efforts — some more extensive than others — to dramatically reduce or eliminate the cost of course materials, which can sometimes rival the price of tuition.

Textbook costs affect academic success

Higher education leaders and advocates, including leaders from California Community Colleges and the California State University system, discussed the biggest successes and hurdles for California colleges during a Thursday panel “Free college textbooks: Dream or reality?” hosted by EdSource.

Cailyn Nagle, open educational resource program manager for Michelson 20MM Foundation, said that 65% of students who responded to a national survey by the Public Interest Research Group skipped out on buying textbooks or course materials because they were too expensive. That figure was 82% for students who had also skipped a meal; many students also declined to buy access codes that courses may require for quizzes or assignments.

“This means students are being priced out of participating in classes that they’ve already paid tuition for,” Nagle said.

According to the California Student Aid Commission, the average student spent $630 on books during the 2022-23 academic year. That doesn’t take into account other course materials, such as clickers, that are increasingly used for attendance and to answer questions in class, Nagle said. With the cost of supplies, the total rises to $1,152 per student annually.

Aya Mikbel, a Sacramento State student, found through interviewing other students in California the various ways they have softened the high cost of textbooks, including buying used copies, shopping for cheaper copies online or renting textbooks. They also borrow textbooks from classmates or forgo textbooks altogether.

These alternatives can affect students’ academic performance. One student told Mikbel that borrowing a textbook often meant it was difficult to check on answers to problem sets or to review previous lessons.

“Students should never feel like they’re focusing more on the price tag of the course rather than the content itself,” Mikbel said.

How California institutions are reducing textbook costs

The California Community College system has received systemwide funding from the state to create zero-textbook-cost pathways. This includes a $5 million pilot program in 2016 and an additional $115 million in 2021 to expand that effort.

The 2016 pilot demonstrated that textbook costs affect academic performance. According to the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Rresources, grades for students in zero-textbook-cost classes were 3% higher than in the same classes taught with traditional class materials, and grades were 7.6% higher for Pell Grant recipients, who can use their grants on textbooks but may opt to use them on other college expenses.

State funding has been key for creating zero-cost pathways at community colleges, but they may not be able to continue doing this work when the funding runs out, said Rebecca Ruan-O’Shaughnessy, vice chancellor of educational services and support at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

“The money is not enough; we need sustainable funding,” said Ruan-O’Shaughnessy.

The CSU and UC systems have not yet received the same kind of statewide funding as community colleges. But there are other efforts within the systems and at individual universities to address the costs of textbooks and create four-year degree zero-cost pathways.

Leslie Kennedy, assistant vice chancellor of academic technology services in academic and student affairs at CSU’s Office of the Chancellor, called the lack of funding “challenging.” But she noted that the system provides internal funding to the individual campuses ranging from $15,000 to $20,000 each year and is also hiring coordinators for affordable learning solutions.

Libraries play a key role in reducing course costs for students. The CSU system has negotiated with publishers to purchase electronic textbooks that can be offered to students for free. CSU is also ensuring that faculty puts a direct link to these resources on their syllabi.

Carole Goldsmith, chancellor of the State Center Community College District, added that publishers and bookstores have employed strategies to reduce costs, such as renting out copies of books or offering lower-cost digital copies.

But Nagle is skeptical of the three big publishers, saying they still have a monopoly on most publishing and are responsible for the steep rise in textbook costs. Publishers could hike rates later, leading to the “Amazonification” of course materials, Nagle added.

“If someone came into my home, lit my curtains on fire and then turned around and put a fire cap on and said, ‘Don’t worry, I can fix this,’ I would not trust them to save my home,” Nagle said.

Nagle said she is particularly worried about automatic billing, the practice of automatically charging students for textbooks and access codes on their tuition bill, typically with discounted bulk rates.

“I know people don’t always agree with me on this,” Nagle said, “and they see this as a great way to leverage bulk purchasing to get students a great deal.”

Open resources hold promise

Open educational resources are a particularly powerful and increasingly popular tool to reduce or eliminate the costs associated with courses. Opern educational resources include freely accessible textbooks, lecture notes, quizzes and other assets released under an open license and can be adapted, modified or reused as students or faculty see fit.

There are many benefits besides being free, easily accessible resources. It’s much easier to update or correct a mistake in an open resource than it is to do in a copyrighted text by a publisher, said Ruan-O’Shaughnessy. The open nature of the resources also allows faculty to customize course materials.

Drop rates and retention rates have improved in pilot courses that relied on open educational resources at State Center Community College, Goldsmith said.

What was really exciting about these courses, she said, was the increased engagement among faculty and students alike. Because they have reliable source texts, they no longer have to rely so heavily on lecture notes, and it’s easier for students to participate in class. Faculty at community colleges also are working to ensure that open-source texts better reflect student diversity. It’s been a win for everyone, she said.

“Faculty were able to curate the coursework, so they felt more engaged,” Goldsmith said. “Students saw more reflective stories of themselves and their culture in the work that they were reading about.”

Reprinted from EdSource (Oct. 27, 2o23)

Emma Gallegos covers equity issues in education for EdSource and is based in California’s Central Valley.

Comcast presented a $100,000 donation to five Central Valley Higher Education Consortium-member community colleges to support the next generation of students eager to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM).

The five colleges, which will receive $20k each, are Fresno City College, Clovis Community College, Madera College, Reedley College  of the State Center Community College District and College of the Sequoias. The institutions selected span four counties in the Central Valley and are home to primarily income constrained student populations with many first-generation students.

The scholarship reception was held Oct. 18 at Fresno City College and included SCCCD Chancellor Dr. Carole Goldsmith, presidents from the five area community colleges who all serve on the CVHEC Board of Directors, along with business and communities leaders from the region.

“This scholarship donation from Comcast will help so many students from communities throughout the Central Valley who will go on to accomplish amazing things,” said David Tashjian, Regional Senior Vice President of Comcast California.

“As someone who doesn’t have a traditional college education— and took a unique path to achieve success in business and life —I’m proud to work at a company that understands the importance of investing in our communities in a variety of different ways. It’s no longer a one-size-fits-all-journey. We need to think creatively, adapt and apply innovation. Our hope at Comcast is that these community college scholarships will do just that — meet these students where they are and support their future learning, growth and advancement in whatever way serves them best.”

This scholarship announcement is part of Comcast’s larger digital equity efforts in the Central Valley where the organization has invested millions in expanding its network and creating new “Lift Zones,” which provide free WiFi access, powered by a Comcast Business solution, to help connect youth and their families, seniors, and community members to the Internet so they can fully participate in educational opportunities and the digital economy.

So far, Comcast has now established nearly 20 Lift Zones throughout the South Central Valley—and a total of more than 150 Lift Zones throughout its California footprint.

“We are grateful for Comcast’s outstanding gesture of philanthropy here in the Central Valley and delighted to accept these scholarship funds that will go to better the lives of our students,” said Dr. Robert Pimentel, Fresno City College president and CVHEC boardmember.

“Comcast’s dedication to our students success is mirrored through its outstanding community efforts and we applaud the company’s commitment to supporting dreams and giving students the extra assistance and resources needed to advance them in finding a rewarding career.”

Dr. Ángel Reyna, Madera College President, said the generosity and commitment of community partners like Comcast assists  students and families in developing robust educational opportunities and providing the resources for our students to thrive and succeed.

“Partnerships like these, where our students are given extra assistance toward their education success, as well as the opportunity to participate in the growing digital economy, enable our entire community to prosper,” said President Reyna, who is also a CVHEC board member.

“Comcast’s generous scholarship donation will provide a pathway for students in our communities to transform their lives through higher education, and that is definitely something to celebrate,” said Dr. Kim Armstrong, Clovis Community College president and CVHEC board member. “Organizations like Comcast help encourage everyone in our community to continue to support our students and help them meet the challenges they face head on so they can graduate and succeed.”

Dr. Jerry Buckley, Reedley College pPresident and CVHEC board member said, “Today’s significant investment from Comcast will help expand our workforce development initiatives in the future and further proves the company’s commitment to the Central Valley, which is sometimes overlooked when it comes to the success of our students. This scholarship donation will help increase access to students looking to enter the tech industry and creates a pipeline for future leaders and entrepreneurs who otherwise would not have been able to participate in the industry.”

“Investments like these in our youth and the larger community are meaningful as they will have lasting impacts on building a highly skilled and diverse talent pipeline here in the Central Valley,” said Dr. Brent Calvin, College of the Sequoias president and CVHEC board member. “Comcast’s scholarship donation will directly support the next generation of leaders that will have the tools and resources needed to tackle the issues the Central Valley will face head on in the future.”

This scholarship donation is part of Comcast’s Project UP initiative, which is the company’s $1 billion commitment to reach 50 million people over the next 10 years with the tools, resources, and skills needed to succeed in a digital world. For more information about Comcast’s Project UP initiative, please visit: https://corporate.comcast.com/impact/project-up

See the Comcast press release (Oct. 19. 2023).

Following the historic Supreme Court June 29 decision that severely limited, if not effectively ended, the use of affirmative action in college admissions, Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Executive Director Benjamín Durán, wrote of his reaction and that of many colleagues, family and friends in his Director’s Message for the CVHEC summer newsletter edition. Dr. Durán’s message also was published in this Valley Voices column of The Fresno Bee Opinion section. (By a vote of 6-3, the justices ruled that the admissions programs used by the University of North Carolina and Harvard College violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which bars racial discrimination by government entities).

VALLEY VOICES | Opinion

Losing affirmative action hurts, but

California educators will adapt to help students 

BY DR. BENJAMÍN DURÁN

(Published in The Fresno Bee Op-Ed Section • July 24, 2023)

When the much anticipated but still devastating decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down affirmative action burst onto the national scene June 29, my phone went into non-stop notifications from family and higher-ed colleagues beset with disappointment and anger.

And, as the country was reeling from that monumental decision, SCOTUS took further action to declare unconstitutional President Biden’s efforts to bring some relief to those holding student loans.

In one week — after decades of progress — equity, diversity and access in higher education were simultaneously under attack.

Dr. Benjamín Durán is executive director of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium and president-emeritus of Merced College.

However, I offer that this Supreme Court ruling is not the death of affirmative action, but rather a challenge to renew and reinforce its spirit and outcomes.

Upon hearing the news and fielding those phone calls, I thought back to 1996, when California voters passed Proposition 209, effectively ending affirmative action in California; and even back to the University of California vs. Bakke case in 1976. Having spent decades in higher education, first as a student and mostly as a professional educator, I reflected on and contemplated how California dealt with those landmark decisions.

I recalled that, despite the initial impacts from those decisions that have cost countless students of color the chance to earn a higher education, advocates and colleagues here in California have nonetheless long embraced the quest for equity in pursuit of student populations that reflect the rich diversity of our state despite legislation and court action to the contrary.

Following that elimination of affirmative action in California 27 years ago, educators in all four segments of higher education — the University of California, the California State University System, the California Community College System and the Independent Colleges and Universities — initiated new strategies and initiatives to attract and enroll students from underrepresented groups that had been targeted by Proposition 209 and the Bakke case.

We made some gains in the face of anti-affirmative action adversity here in California, but there is still more work to do, especially as evidenced by these new Supreme Court rulings.

If we truly believe that “all” means all and “everybody” means everybody, it is appropriate that the impact of race, economic status and a person’s life experience are factors that should be considered as students pursue the dream and promise of higher education.

Today, now more than ever, the equity efforts long in play here in California are essential nationwide. We must not let up in our quest to strive and reach goals that have not yet been met but are being pursued relentlessly by countless higher education professionals, policy makers, legislators, students and community supporters throughout our state and in other states similarly affected.

Locally, the work of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium members – made up of 28 colleges in the nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern – under our equity umbrella aligns very well with reinforcing and renewing efforts to address the spirit and outcomes of Affirmative Action as it was intended when first conceptualized, not as it has been characterized lately.

I am confident that our Central Valley colleges and universities will continue to make their institutions open to all because it is the right thing to do, not because it is legislated.

So I invite and encourage my esteemed colleagues serving students throughout the Central Valley and beyond to once again rise to this new challenge, as we have always done, with a renewed vigor in continuing the good work you have done for our students.

Let us use the anger and disappointment we felt initially and get on with the work ahead of us. We must assure that the spirit of affirmative action, as it was originally intended, thrives for the good of our entire community. Dr. Benjamín Durán is executive director of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium and president-emeritus of Merced College.

See the Fresno Bee op-ed