To the Editor:
The cost of textbooks is too darn high! As a freshman, I have been accustomed to receiving textbooks from my teachers and not paying to borrow them for a year. Textbooks in college on the other hand, are way too expensive to keep buying or even renting each semester in addition to the thousands of dollars we are paying just to attend the university. A simple solution to the majority of Westfield State University’s student body exists and is very simple to achieve with a little bit of support and hard work. Open Textbooks are an up-and-coming resource for students that provide a cheaper and easier way to access course work when needed. They are written using an open copyright license which allows anyone to access the text for free online. Even if you’re a student who prefers to have the text printed for you to read, it would only cost you about $20-$40. After switching to open textbooks, the cost of textbooks could be cut by 80% or even more! More than 2,000 professors across the nation have already began to try open textbooks. Although the selection is currently more constricted compared to expensive books made by publishing companies, there are hundreds of new open textbooks in the process of being published with the help of new publishing models, federal grants, and school-sponsored projects. After all, who doesn’t like free books? Open textbooks are an easy way to alleviate the financial crises of most students attending this school or any expensive college.
Jon Hawes, WSU
Intern for MassPIRG
