Student Organizing, Inc.

Student Organizing, Inc. is a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization that hosts the nationally coordinated projects of the Student PIRGs. The Student PIRGs are a network of campus-based student advocacy organizations working toward affordable higher education and other public interest issues. PIRG’s Higher Education program seeks to expand the mainstream adoption of OER and open textbooks through grassroots, on-campus organizing and advocacy at the university, state, and federal policy levels. This helps to ensure that college educators as well as students understand the benefits of open educational materials and that educational systems are advancing policies that promote the mass adoption of those materials. (Substrategy: Sustainable Systems)

The average college student spends approximately $900 per year on textbooks, and prices have been rising at four times the rate of inflation for two decades. Textbook cost has become a major issue for low- and middle-income college students. To reduce those costs, the Center for Public Interest Student Organizing, the nation's largest student public interest organization, proposes to use its extensive network of professional campus organizers to increase the demand for open textbooks by conducting research, distributing information, and marketing the concept to faculty. Open textbooks eventually will pave the way for mainstream adoption of more innovative OER models designed to transform teaching, learning, and accessibility, while controlling costs.

This renewal grant would help Student Organizing Inc. continue its work to reduce the rising costs of college textbooks by increasing student and faculty demand for open textbooks, a tangible and familiar form of OER. Student Organizing Inc. would continue to build faculty and student networks to accelerate and sustain OER adoption. It would also conduct and publicize research on the cost-saving impact of OER.