New US PIRG report: How COVID-19 impacts course material affordability
Cailyn Nagle
Hello all, The Student PIRGs and the U.S. PIRG Education Fund released a survey report today of more than 5,000 students at 82 colleges and universities, revealing the impacts that the pandemic has had on students’ ability to fully participate in class. Our student volunteers replicated the survey we last ran in Fall 2019, and added new questions to dig a bit more into the impacts of basic needs insecurity during the Fall 2020 term.
You can read Fixing the Broken Textbook Market’s third edition in full on our website, or in abbreviated form in this twitter thread. One shocking stat to note is that 38% of students who reported that they were food insecure during the pandemic had also skipped buying an access code - that’s nearly twice the rate of their peers. It’s more urgent than ever that our institutions, and state and federal governments, invest in free open textbook initiatives and in the infrastructure needed to ensure students can learn remotely.
In addition to this morning’s release, we invite you to join us for a webinar briefing this Friday 2/26 at noon ET / 9am PT. The webinar will feature
Cailyn Nagle, US PIRG Affordable Textbook’s Campaign Director and report author
Rayne Vieger, University of Oregon
Amanda Topping, Berkshire Community College OER Ambassador and SGA Leader
Prabhdeep Rai, CALPIRG Student’s Board Member, UCLA senior, and textbooks campaign coordinator
You can register for the webinar near the bottom of this page, although space is limited. A recording will be posted at a later date at that same landing page.
Please reach out if you have any questions, or would like to connect to get local stats (where applicable) or materials to share these findings with yoru campus communities!
Best,
Cailyn Nagle