Affordable Course Materials initiative has saved CWU students over $920,000

It’s no secret that the price of course materials like textbooks has risen dramatically in recent years, even in comparison to steadily increasing inflation on everything else in the background.

In 2019, the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) recognized the barrier that these cost increases have put between students and their pursuit of a college degree by offering a grant targeted specifically at helping higher education institutions explore Open Education Resources (OER) — which are peer-reviewed and free to use — in the classroom.

Since then, Central Washington University Libraries has been hard at work exploring different avenues to lowering textbook and course material costs for students across campus, including through an expanded inventory of electronic textbooks procured in part through a generous donation from the Friends of Brooks Library Board, and through hiring CWU’s first Affordable Course Materials Librarian, Anna Crosswhite, in 2024.

Crosswhite oversees the Affordable Course Materials (ACM) initiative, a multi-pronged approach to lowering student costs through collaborations with faculty and the Wildcat Shop.

“The ACM initiative works with faculty to identify low- or no-cost course materials,” Crosswhite said. “That could be through library-licensed eBooks that are unlimited user access, print course reserves, as well as open educational resources, which are freely available online and can be printed at cost. We also notify them when a textbook they have selected is available through the library.”

Crosswhite has seen firsthand what’s possible when faculty utilize OER in their course planning.

“Faculty in my master’s program utilized OER and library licenses pretty heavily, so I think I only spent around $40 on textbooks during my whole program,” she said. “Coming into this position, I knew that it was both possible and doable to reduce textbook costs for students.”

The Wildcat Shop got involved with the initiative through sharing its inventory data and working with CWU Libraries to identify and label books that are available for free.

“Anna has been able to come in and wrangle all of that data and spend a ton of time with textbook lists and communication with faculty,” said Dean of Libraries Sydney Thompson. “The university running our own independent bookstore and us having a great relationship with them was instrumental in getting all of that data in one place.”

That independence has been key to the Wildcat Shop in fulfilling their overall vision to ensure every student has access to high-quality, affordable course materials from the first day of class, according to Wildcat Shop Director Angela Johnson.

“As an independent campus store, we can focus on developing strong partnerships with faculty and the library to expand the adoption of Open Educational Resources and library-licensed content and continue to offer low-cost learning resources that reduce financial barriers while maintaining academic quality,” she said. “This independence allows us the flexibility to work on long-term programs that develop innovative, student-centered solutions, respond quickly to campus needs, and reinvest resources into programs that advance affordability.”

In addition to identifying and securing access to low- or no-cost course materials, Crosswhite has been hosting workshops for faculty eager to help lower cost barriers for their students. Assistant Professor of English Candace Walsh attended one of these Course Redesign sessions over the summer and came away with newfound perspective on the importance of the work.

“I learned how pivotal accessible textbook materials are to first-gen and lower-income families,” Walsh said. “It can make the difference between degree completion or withdrawing from CWU. As a first-gen student myself, my textbooks were the only thing my parents paid for. The rest was on me. Anna's presentation and workshop clarified the importance of access to class texts.”

Physics Professor Bruce Palmquist has been an avid supporter of OER and textbook affordability for years, and he was excited to see CWU Libraries broadening its approach to mitigating the cost of attending college.

“By creating a position like Anna’s, it shows that the library is more than a collection of old books,” Palmquist said. “The library cares about the student experience and is reaching out to faculty members to enhance that experience — by promoting affordability.”

Thanks to the collaboration with the Wildcat Shop, Crosswhite has been able to access the data necessary to confidently estimate the savings passed on to students through the ACM initiative. Since she started her position two years ago, students have saved an estimated $921,760 on textbooks, which puts Crosswhite and the ACM team well within reach of their goal of $2 million by 2028.

“In the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, not having to worry about affording textbooks is one more thing off students’ plates,” Crosswhite said. “There’s so much of the cost of college that we as educators can’t control, but what we can control is what we assign to students and the resource we provide for them.”

More information about the Affordable Course Materials initiative, as well as upcoming faculty workshops, is available online. Crosswhite is available to consult with any faculty members or students looking for ways to save on course materials.

“My favorite feeling is finding those little hidden gem textbooks and being able to share them with the people who need them,” she said. “I think sometimes there can be some hesitation around asking me to go out and research solutions for specific classroom needs, but I love doing it.”