Join the Open Textbooks Call to Action
Textbooks are way too expensive. Fortunately, we have an alternative -- open textbooks are quality books, written and peer-reviewed by experts, that professors and students can use for free. Colleges are already saving students millions of dollars by using open textbooks in a relatively small number of classes. Now it's time to make open textbooks the norm on campus.Read more
The Rise of Hunger on College Campuses
We're excited to announce the release of our new research report, “Hunger On Campus,” on the issue of campus food insecurity.Read more
Join the Open Textbook Movement
The cost of higher education is way too high. An often overlooked part of this problem is the soaring price of textbooks – in fact, the cost of textbooks has almost doubled in the last decade. With just five large publishing companies controlling 80% of the textbook market, publishers have been able to hike up their prices without fear of competition.Read more
Ending Hunger on Campus
Hunger is a reality everywhere – even on college campuses.
As college becomes less affordable, more students are living on the edge. For some, it's an ongoing struggle just to get enough to eat.
Recently, this problem has prompted some colleges to set up on-campus food pantries to help students in need. New pantries are opening every semester.
Many student governments are interested in opening a campus food pantry, but aren't sure where to start. That's why we've created this toolkit to provide the resources you need to create and operate a successful food pantry on your campus.
Please download the toolkit today!
How to Make Textbooks More Affordable
We're excited to announce the release of our newest campaign resource, a toolkit for our Making Textbooks Affordable program.
The high cost of textbooks has become a serious obstacle to the affordability of a college education. The textbook market is rigged so that publishers can generate huge profits and engage in bad practices at students’ expense.
Fortunately, we have solutions to this problem, most notably in the form of “open textbooks” – high-quality books that are available online for free or for a very low cost in print. With solutions like these, we can break the publishers’ stranglehold on the market and help make higher education more accessible to everyone.
Our new toolkit provides the resources that student governments need in order to bring open textbooks to their campuses and save students money. Download it today!
Save Student Aid: Issue Update
In response to our recent action alert, more than 70 student government presidents signed a letter to Congress urging them to oppose cuts to student aid programs. Thank you to everyone who took action!
Unfortunately, the U.S. House and Senate still chose to move forward with these cuts.
The cuts in the House's version of the budget are especially harsh and include:
- $90 billion from Pell Grants, which support nine million low-income students;
- $34 billion from in-school interest subsidies, which protect students from paying interest on their student loans while they're still in school; and
- $27 billion from programs like income-based repayment and public service loan forgiveness that provide a safety net for graduates with student debt.
However, these cuts are a long way from becoming final - and we're going to fight them at every single turn.Read more
#TextbookBroke: Campaign for Affordable Textbooks
Many student governments have joined a growing movement to lower the cost of college textbooks.
At first, this might not seem like a profound issue, but for many students textbooks are the single largest out-of-pocket expense of going to college. The College Board estimates that students spend about $1200 on textbooks and supplies every year, and individual textbooks can cost as much as $200. Even worse, over the past decade, college textbook prices have increased by 82%, which is three times the rate of inflation.
Textbook prices can be a serious barrier for students and families struggling to afford a higher education - but they don't need to cost so much. In the online age, we certainly have the technology to make textbooks more affordable.
U.S. PIRG published a recent report, Fixing the Broken Textbook Market, that details the huge impact textbook prices have on students.Read more