College instructors: want to help students save money? Join the efforts of Student PIRG to encourage professors to offer cheaper materials for students.
College students hate the ridiculously high price of college textbooks. And professors hate the high cost too. Most professors have quite a bit of compassion for the young people they spend so much of their time with, and publishing companies that go out of their way to exploit these young people for a profit are resented by professors.
As the price of textbooks gets higher and higher, professors are fighting back by ordering cheaper books and by making use of digital resources instead of textbooks. Here's an article about this issue in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
Faculty Members Fight High Cost of Textbooks
Now there's something else professors can do to help students save money on course materials. Student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Group), a popular student activist group on many college campuses in the United States, has created an "Open Textbook Faculty Statement of Intent." Available on the Student PIRG website for professors to sign, this document states, "
"By signing this statement, faculty members state their intent to include open textbooks in their search for the most appropriate course materials, and they declare their preference to adopt an open textbook in place of an expensive, commercial textbook, if the open textbook is the best option."
Professors, come read the petition and sign it!
