The discussion, which looked at statewide efforts to address these high costs with more free or low-cost open resource materials for students, was one of several panels held across the country to share the organization’s latest data showing the impact of high-cost course materials on students’ academic performances and daily lives.
According to James Mahoney, Salem State’s Student Government president, students aren’t just working one job that keeps them from social life, attending classes, and studying — they’re often working multiple jobs.
“(Working at) these jobs is not what college is for,” Mahoney said. “College is intended to be a place where we dive into our studies and learn more about ourselves, and I don’t see that happening behind the cash register. Last semester, my college textbooks cost $450. There is no reason that we need to be spending this much on textbooks.”
In a new report by MASSPIRG that surveyed over 4,000 students at 110 colleges and universities nationwide this fall, 38 percent of students reported the cost of textbooks or access codes impacted their academic experience, with students often choosing classes based on material costs, and others dropping or failing courses because they couldn’t afford required materials.
The report said 32.5 percent of students said high textbook costs disrupted their daily lives. Many reported working extra hours, skipping meals, or delaying paying bills in order to afford course materials.
“This past semester, my course materials were $308, my disability check is $564, so that’s taking up 54 percent of my monthly check, which is a considerable chunk,” said Salem State student Vee Toussaint. “Had it not been for family support, I would not be able to access my course materials. We have to keep up with living expenses and the cost of college in general, so when we’re talking about textbook affordability, it’s about making sure that everyone has equal access to education and that certain students are able to keep up without the barrier of a price tag.”
About half of the 107 surveyed institutions use automatic textbook billing. At schools with course-specific billing, 68 percent of surveyed students who knew they were enrolled in auto-billed courses reported they didn’t know they could opt out or were unable to do so.
Ash Smith, chair of MASSPIRG at Salem State, said they know from their own experience how challenging it can be to balance school, work, bills, a social life, and the ongoing responsibility of caring for both their home and well-being.
“Students should not have to take on more stress or extra work simply to afford to continue their education,” Smith said. “This is why (open resources) is a critical tool that can be helpful in facilitating the transition to more accessible higher education learning and help ease these burdens by reducing unnecessary financial barriers.”
For decades, the cost of course materials has increased far beyond the rate of inflation, and while that increase has leveled off in recent years, it hasn’t resulted in more students being able to afford their required materials, according to the MASSPIRG report.
To address this issue, Salem State faculty have begun to widely implement open resource course materials that are free and can be highly customizable by professors for specific courses.
In 2017, Salem State launched the Viking OER & Textbook Affordability Initiative, which provides a programmatic approach to faculty professional development to raise awareness, expand, and foster creation of OER for students. The initiative encourages faculty to use existing no-cost library databases like JSTOR, provide stipends to faculty to rework entire programs or courses that utilize OER, and pay faculty for their time to write OER textbooks that have been released to the public.
Since 2019, the initiative has helped save around $1 million for students by using no-cost, low-cost, or existing library materials in courses, according to Cathy Fahey, Salem State’s OER Librarian.
“Some disciplines lend themselves easily to open content, and others are a real challenge,” Fahey said. “For example, anatomy and physiology is a very easy course to have OER because the human body is already mapped — that knowledge is public domain. But, of course, with disciplines like modern poetry, the authors are still alive, and those types of books can never be open in public domain until 100 years after the author dies.
“So we work with faculty to find affordable alternatives within these confines of the discipline, and we’re always looking at new ideas and ways to think about affordability,” she said.
Salem State history professor Annette Chapman-Adisho said her interest in incorporating OER into her courses was two-fold: increasing student engagement and the ability to put more voices into course materials.
“With a textbook, you might get one voice or a small team, and that’s good. But with OER, you can have so many more voices in front of the room,” Chapman-Adisho said. “You can have readings from a variety of authors — some people who’ve lived through experiences, others who have written about them professionally, or even amateur historians. You can also incorporate other types of material like videos and images, so I like the diversity that OER presents in my classes.”
Despite the ability to include multiple perspectives on a subject using different mediums, Chapman-Adisho maintained that some textbooks remain the best means of conveying information on certain topics to students.
“OER and low-cost (course materials) are not appropriate for every class,” she said. “I can’t speak for other professors, but in my own teaching, sometimes I choose to use a textbook because I truly believe that the nature of the subject will be better conveyed by students having a certain textbook. That being said, when I feel a textbook cost is out of line with what is affordable or reasonable, I will start searching for alternatives, even if I have to start creating them myself.”
More information on MASSPIRG initiatives and the latest “Fixing the Broken Textbook Market” report can be found at masspirgstudents.org. More information on the Viking OER & Textbook Affordability Initiative can be found at libguides.salemstate.edu/oer.
© 2026 The Salem News (Beverly, Mass.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
